President Ilham Aliyev is holding his annual question-and-answer session with international journalists at the 4th Shusha Global Media Forum in Azerbaijan.
“There's a big difference from what President Trump was doing and is doing, and his predecessors,” Ilham Aliyev said at the opening of the 4th Shusha Global Media Forum.
"President Trump's approach was quite different. He is a person who loves peace, a person who brings peace to many destinations, as he himself tells he brought peace to eight conflicts, and this is his character. This is his vision and his policy,” he added.
''So these are two important factors, and also diversification, because we started to supply gas to a market which we could not even foresee, which is Syria, and we can expand from Syria towards the neighborhood where there is a big demand,” President Ilham Aliyev said during his speech at the opening ceremony of the 4th Shusha Global Media Forum.
Aliyev added: "So for us, it is very important in relations with European partners to have a long-term contract and also to work jointly on the expansion of the existing gas transportation system."
President Ilham Aliyev touched upon expanding Azerbaijan's gas presence at the opening of the IV Shusha Global Media Forum.
“We started to supply Germany and Austria this year, and this is a part of our overall strategy to expand our presence on global and particularly European gas market,” President Ilham Aliyev said during his speech at the opening of the 4th Shusha Global Media Forum.
According to the head of state, the European market was a premium market, the market with the best prices. Therefore, Azerbaijan was very interested to expand its capacity.
"We supply gas to 16 countries by pipelines, and we are number one in the world with this geography of supplying by pipeline gas. And more to come,” President Ilham Aliyev said during his speech at the opening of the 4th Shusha Global Media Forum.
The head of state added: "We still are in negotiation with some members of European Union, and in order to start supply and in order to increase the supply. So we have both requests. And in today's energy market situations, the gas from a reliable source, from Azerbaijan, predictable source and alternative source is more important than probably 10 years ago."
"We see aggravation of tensions, we see mutual accusations, we see wars in different parts of the world, not only in the Middle East and Gulf, and this is very disappointing,” President Ilham Aliyev said during his speech at the opening of the 4th Shusha Global Media Forum.
The head of state emphasised that solidarity within the Organization of Islamic cooperation was the main factor for security and stability. He noted that if there was more solidarity, more mutual understanding, there would be less difficult times.
"Azerbaijan was always strongly advocating for solidarity between the Muslim countries, and numerous events held in Azerbaijan and numerous initiatives which we put forward actually served the cause of solidarity, mutual understanding, and unity, we will see how things develop prior to the summit,” President Ilham Aliyev said during his speech at the opening of the 4th Shusha Global Media Forum.
The head of state noted: "But unfortunately, now we don't see much solidarity. On the contrary, we see aggravation of tensions, we see mutual accusations, we see wars in different parts of the world, not only in the Middle East and Gulf, and this is very disappointing."
"With respect to your second question about middle power, yes, I read some analytic articles, and also I'm aware about some opinion of experts about Azerbaijan already becoming, already became a middle power. Though I think the gathering like this can also help to identify exactly what are the criteria for the country to be named middle power. There can be various criteria, and one single criteria has not yet been elaborated,” President Ilham Aliyev said during his speech at the opening of the 4th Shusha Global Media Forum.
The head of state added: "But to my mind, this terminology means recognition of the country's potential, its ability to defend its national interests, regardless what big powers think or do, ability to resist with all your potential when someone wants to hurt you."
"I would say relations between Trump's administration and Azerbaijan are excellent, and we are very glad that these relations have elevated to the level of a strategic partnership,” President Ilham Aliyev said during his speech at the opening ceremony of the 4th Shusha Global Media Forum.
Touching upon his meetings with President Trump, the head of state noted: “My historic meeting with President Trump last August in Washington, our meeting in Davos in January this year, the invitation for Azerbaijan to be a founding member of the Board of Peace initiated by President Trump, the visit of Vice President JD Vance, and the signing of the joint declaration on establishing a strategic partnership with the Vice President in Baku, along with many other factors, demonstrate that our relations are now at a peak, unprecedented level, which we have never had before.”
President Ilham Aliyev touched upon the complete repeal of Section 907 at the opening ceremony of the 4th Shusha Global Media Forum.
“First, because Azerbaijan and Armenia initiated a peace agreement in the White House in the presence of President Trump. Second, Azerbaijan unilaterally lifted all the transit restrictions to Armenia, and now, since we did it, more than 40,000 tons of different cargo was transported to Armenia from Russia, from Kazakhstan, and from other destinations,” the head of state said during his speech in this regard.
The President noted that Azerbaijan itself started to supply oil products to Armenia, and it was already, as far as he remembered, more than 10,000 tons, especially at that time, when many countries were suffering from access to the source of fuel, Armenia had a reliable source as Azerbaijan. If not for that, probably today they would have been looking for gasoline and diesel all over the world. This once again demonstrated that this section was completely outdated and should be repealed completely.
"First on the 907 amendment, you know it very well, but maybe not everyone knows that—that was a very unfair move from the United States Congress towards Azerbaijan back in 1992," President Ilham Aliyev said at the opening ceremony of the 4th Shusha Global Media Forum.
"When the Freedom Support Act was adopted in the U.S. Congress to support the newly independent countries after the collapse of the Soviet Union with financial assistance, Amendment 907 was introduced by pro-Armenian senators. By the way, President Biden was one of them. He was a senator at that time, and this probably explains why we had so many difficulties with the Biden administration," the head of state noted.
"You know, on many occasions I express my view on that: that if Azerbaijan leaves the Council of Europe completely, no one in the country will even notice that. So being there or not being there doesn't change a lot here," President Ilham Aliyev said at the opening ceremony of the 4th Shusha Global Media Forum.
The head of state emphasized: "And we are not looking for confrontation, especially when not only Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, but also European Parliament is attacking us regularly, again without any grounds. I think it's kind of an obsession about Azerbaijan."
"Now we can say that certain corrupt figures, including the former judge of the International Court, Mr. Ocampo, who in his comments publicly acknowledged that the money for Mr. Ocampo was coming from Russian-Armenian oligarch," President Ilham Aliyev said at the opening of the 4th Shusha Global Media Forum.
The head of state noted: "It's a big chain of anti-Azerbaijani group, which existed in European Commission. But it's good that Mr. Borrell is now out of politics, hopefully forever. And with the new commission, our relations started to improve, especially after we've seen that there is a big mutual demand for a reset, and we supported that."
President Ilham Aliyev spoke about Azerbaijan's relations with the European Commission and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe at the opening ceremony of the 4th Shusha Global Media Forum.
Regarding this, the head of state said: "You mentioned several important moments in our relations with the European institutions, including European Commission and Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. And as you know, there is a big difference between relations with one and another. With European Commission, though, we had not an easy times, during the previous Commission, especially due to the destructive role of the former head of European diplomacy, Mr. Borrell, who actually ruined, almost ruined, relations between the European Commission and Azerbaijan."
"People in Türkiye and Azerbaijan are the closest among all the countries of the world. Looking at the level of cooperation, political, economic, energy, connectivity, and people-to-people relations, it is clear that no other two countries in the world are so close, supportive, and friendly to each other than Türkiye and Azerbaijan," President Ilham Aliyev said at the opening ceremony of the 4th Shusha Global Media Forum.
"The policy of Azerbaijan has always been aimed at cooperation, at addressing the concerns of our neighbors and also them to be ready to address our concerns and atmosphere,” President Ilham Aliyev said at the opening ceremony of the 4th Shusha Global Media Forum.
"What I was talking about atmosphere here in Shusha at the media forum is the same what we are trying to create, and I hope we managed to create among many international actors," the head of state added.
"And now we are only working on the issues how to expand it, because we did not expect that our geography will be so needed in recent times. Interaction with neighbours to the east and to the west are excellent," President Ilham Aliyev said at the opening ceremony of the 4th Shusha Global Media Forum.
The head of state noted that whether it is the countries of Central Asia or our immediate neighbors like Georgia, Türkiye, and Europe, relations are good. "And to connect all that, of course, we needed to initiate many steps that could enable the corridor to be efficient," he added.
“We have worked on connectivity issues for a quite long time, working more actively for over 10 years,” said President Ilham Aliyev as he addressed the opening ceremony of the 4th Shusha Global Media Forum.
The head of state noted: "Utilising our geographic advantages, we made efforts to build a platform for multilateral cooperation."
President Ilham Aliyev highlighted the purpose of the 4th Shusha Global Media Forum during its opening ceremony.
The head of state said: “The idea of the forum was to create an atmosphere for media representatives from different parts of the world to address issues of common interest and mutual concern, while also giving them the opportunity to get acquainted with Garabagh and Shusha. As time passes, I am sure that many of our guests who visit us regularly can see the development of Garabagh and witness its ongoing reconstruction.”
The high-profile discussion is focusing on regional security, foreign policy, peace efforts in the South Caucasus and major global developments. Since the forum’s launch, Aliyev’s Q&A sessions have become one of the most closely watched events, attracting attention from media organisations around the world.
This year’s dialogue comes as several regional and international issues remain at the center of global discussions. The session is expected to provide insights into Azerbaijan’s positions on current geopolitical challenges and future cooperation. The Shusha Global Media Forum continues to serve as a platform for international media leaders to exchange views on the evolving role of journalism and information.
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