“The proposal of the member states of the Non-Aligned Movement to extend Azerbaijan’s presidency for another year speaks first of all about the great confidence on the part of the organization’s members,” expert on interethnic conflicts, a member of the Union of Journalists of Russia Yevgeny Mikhailov told Report.
Mikhailov believes that Azerbaijan has demonstrated to the whole world that a country that is not a member of any military alliance can be strong and independent. The expert noted that even after Azerbaijan’s victory in the Patriotic War, the country’s economy didn’t suffer much from the expenses of hostilities and, moreover, Azerbaijan in one year has already shown impressive success in restoring the liberated lands destroyed as a result of many years of occupation, Mikhailov added. This is a great example for many countries, he noted.
“Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, having approved the proposal to create a high-level UN panel on global recovery after COVID-19, actually additionally confirmed his own initiatives in this direction. President Ilham Aliyev and President of Russia Vladimir Putin have previously touched upon such an initiative only at the regional level when the joint actions of our countries were actively discussed to create a single center for responding to sanitary and epidemiological threats among the CIS member states,” Mikhailov said.
“It is safe to say that before Azerbaijan became the chair country of the organization, the country wasn’t so famous on the world stage. But after Baku’s victory in the Karabakh war, both the country itself and its leader gained popularity not only at official summits but also behind the scenes... Not only Azerbaijan became recognizable after the country headed the organization, but the organization itself gained wider recognition after the whole world saw what Azerbaijan is capable of under the leadership of Ilham Aliyev,” the Russian expert concluded.