Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has met with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, as well as other world leaders, at the seventh European Political Community (EPC) summit in Copenhagen. The two-day event concluded on Thursday.
While Azerbaijan’s relations with longtime foe Armenia appear to be improving in light of the August initialling of the peace agreement in Washington, Baku’s stance towards Paris has mostly remained antagonistic, largely due to the latter’s historic support for Armenia.
There were scant details of the meeting from either the Azerbaijani or French side, with the Azerbaijani pro-government media outlet APA only reporting that Macron and Aliyev ‘exchanged views on the current state and future prospects of relations’ between their respective countries.
APA also added that Macron had congratulated Aliyev on the progress towards peace with Armenia.
Responding to a question from journalists about the peace process, Macron said he was ‘extremely happy by the agreement signed in Washington’, adding that France ‘completely backed this agreement’.
Macron added that he hoped ‘we will have a full-fledged signature [between Armenia and Azerbaijan] with all the different steps toward the total normalisation in the region and total normalisation with the other neighbours’.
Despite the pleasantries, the vilification of France in Azerbaijani media has continued unabated, including an article in the pro-government outlet Caliber on Thursday that personally attacked Macron and another on Friday that cited a political analyst as saying ‘Islamophobia now embedded in French law and politics’.
Albanian Prime Minister Rama mocks Trump and Aliyev’s other EPC meetings
Perhaps the biggest news of the EPC summit involving Aliyev (and arguably in general) was a joke that Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama made to Macron and Aliyev, in which he quipped that Macron should apologise for not congratulating him for achieving peace with Azerbaijan. Rama was referring to US President Donald Trump’s repeated mix-ups of Albania and Armenia.
Rama’s joke, which both Macron and Aliyev laughed at, was widely shared in US media, with many outlets claiming it was evidence of world leaders mocking Trump.
Beyond the Macron meeting, Aliyev also held one-on-one talks with Pashinyan; the two discussed the Washington agreements and the Trump Route (also known as TRIPP) which will connect Azerbaijan to its exclave of Nakhchivan.
Another high-profile meeting was with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi — commentators noted that despite both Aliyev and Zelenskyi both being native speakers of Russian, the two leaders opted to speak in English.
Zelenskyi said they discussed ‘diplomatic efforts toward a just peace in Ukraine, as well as energy and potential defence partnerships’, and also reiterated that he was ‘grateful for Azerbaijan’s support’.
Aliyev also met with Moldovan President Maia Sandu, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, European Council President António Costa, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof.
OC Media
