President Aliyev details Azerbaijan’s strategy for global influence, energy growth

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev addressed key pillars of the country’s international strategy — expanding energy partnerships, strengthening its global role, and promoting solidarity across the Islamic world — during the opening of the 4th Shusha Global Media Forum.

At the forum, President Aliyev emphasised that strengthening Azerbaijan’s position in global and European gas markets remained a central priority of the country’s energy strategy, Caliber.Az reports per state media.

“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,” he said.

The head of state noted that the European market was a premium market with the best prices, adding that Azerbaijan was therefore interested in increasing its capacity and expanding its presence there.

The president stressed that Azerbaijan had already established itself as a reliable and predictable energy partner, supplying natural gas to a wide range of countries through pipelines.

"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,” Aliyev noted.

The head of state added that Azerbaijan continued negotiations with several European Union members to launch new supplies and increase existing volumes, saying: "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."

Aliyev also highlighted Azerbaijan’s expanding energy geography, noting that the country had entered new markets that had previously not been considered part of its export destinations.

"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,” he stated.

The head of state stressed that expanding cooperation with international partners required long-term commitments and further development of existing infrastructure, noting: "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."

Turning to international issues, President Aliyev also addressed the importance of solidarity among Islamic countries, describing it as a key factor for maintaining stability and security.

"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.

The head of state stressed that stronger solidarity and mutual understanding within the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation could help reduce the impact of global challenges.

He recalled that Azerbaijan had consistently supported closer cooperation and unity among Muslim countries, noting that initiatives and international events hosted by Baku had contributed to promoting solidarity and mutual understanding.

"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.

The head of state added: "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"

President Aliyev also spoke about Azerbaijan’s growing international standing, saying that the country was already being recognised by some analysts as a middle power.

"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,” Aliyev said.

He explained that the concept reflected a country’s ability to protect its national interests, maintain independence in decision-making, and respond to challenges regardless of the positions of larger powers.

"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," the Azerbaijani leader emphasised.

By Jeyhun Aghazada