At the outset, I would like to thank the organizers for the invitation, genuine hospitality, and excellent organization of the event. I’m honored and privileged to represent ODED-GUAM as we mark our 20th Anniversary this year. As you may know, we are based in Kyiv, Ukraine, and are working and living there under the conditions of brutal war. Namely, in this context, I hope for meaningful deliberations and effective outcomes from this Forum, under a title that is telling and calls for urgent collective action.

I also want to thank the Republic of Azerbaijan for its continued dedication to the “Baku Process”, and for the country’s role in forging intercultural dialogue to promote peace, tolerance, and understanding in a changing environment and a divisive world. The Process was launched years ago, when the context was very different, with part of the country’s territory under illegal occupation, with hundreds of thousands of refugees and IDPs scattered across the country.

What we have witnessed since then is a process in which Azerbaijan, in defiance of and despite all obstacles and challenges, has gradually and steadily changed that environment by breaking the international inertia of imitating a peaceful settlement and shaping a new context through its active diplomacy. These efforts culminated in a glorious victory in 2020 and the subsequent full restoration of its territorial integrity and sovereignty within internationally recognized borders.

We congratulate Azerbaijan on this remarkable achievement and wish it every success in its efforts to win just and lasting peace in the region.

Azerbaijan exemplifies true leadership, responsibility, and commitment to international law and a rules-based global order. The leadership of the Republic of Azerbaijan is setting a new pattern in this world of disarray, leading by example and offering hope and inspiration to GUAM member states and many other nations. This kind of strong, uncompromised leadership is badly needed in today’s divisive, fracturing world.

Mr. Chairman,

As I mentioned, I represent the ODED-GUAM, a regional organization of four friendly nations and strategic partners – Georgia, Ukraine, the Republic of Azerbaijan, and the Republic of Moldova, united by common and shared interests and objectives. Historically, peoples of all walks of life – ethnic, confessional, cultural origins – have lived in peace and harmony in these lands. And among our objectives is to preserve and further develop this unique experience of diversity and multiculturalism.

At the same time, all our countries, after regaining independence, are facing enormous common challenges that threaten their sovereignty and territorial integrity. Conflicts along ethnic and religious lines have been imposed on our countries from outside, utilizing divisive policies by cultivating enmity and hatred, and then using it as a pretext to wage wars. This is a typical instrument of imperial divide-and-rule policy, used to keep these territories under its control. As President I. Aliyev noted in his opening remarks, source and causes were the same.

Regions of Georgia – Abkhazia and Tskhinvali are currently under illegal occupation by the Russian Federation. Russia continues illegal, brutal practices of further slicing territories, with incidents of deaths and unlawful detentions among the civilian population.

In the Republic of Moldova, there is an illegal separatist Transnistrian regime supported by the Russian Federation.

In 2014, the RF started an illegal war against Ukraine, resulting in the occupation of the Eastern parts of the Donbas region of Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea. In February 2022, Russia started an illegal, unjustified, and unprovoked full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine. The war, with genocidal features, aims at the subjugation and annihilation of the whole nation. This is the longest and most destructive war since WWII that is unfolding in front of the civilized world, with massive daily deaths and casualties, and, unfortunately, is further encouraged by impunity for crimes.

Referring to the previous speakers’ comments on AI and its potential impact on intercultural dialogue, I can attest, as a witness, that AI technologies are being developed and tested most rapidly on battlefields, radically transforming modern warfare and killing in a more technologically sophisticated way.

Mr. Chairman,

Geopolitical shifts and developments have more pronouncedly emphasized the importance of the GUAM geography as a bridge between East and West, two global economic powerhouses, Europe and Asia. As mentioned today, this geography is congested with growing air, land, and maritime traffic.

As an organization, we do everything possible under current circumstances to leverage our geographic advantage and utilize emerging economic opportunities. We do believe that our region should become an essential part of the new connectivity and security architecture in the wider Black Sea and Caspian Sea region. Therefore, we are currently promoting our two flagship initiatives – the GUAM Transport Corridor and the GUAM Free Trade Area.

But we are also considering developing, in parallel, a GUAM Cultural Corridor that brings together and further develops the unique experiences of our countries, as well as nations beyond our region. We aim to create conditions in the region where, alongside the free flow of commercial goods and commodities, people, ideas, knowledge, and best practices can move freely among all nations across this increasingly important, vast geography, thus enriching each other.

With this in mind, we signed an MoU with the UNAOC in 2018. We have also developed close contacts with the UNWTO (tourism). We welcome and look forward to cooperation with all interested parties who are keen and able to help us bring peace to our long-suffering region and transform it into a zone of peace, security, and cooperation. We are ready to serve as a platform, a playground, if you will, to test your creative ideas and initiatives. We need urgent attention and constructive involvement of the international community. This is a big challenge for us all.

In conclusion, on behalf of the GUAM nations, I wish your peoples and constituencies peace and prosperity!

I thank you for the opportunity to address this Forum and for your kind attention.