Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s opening speech at the COP29 climate change conference criticising European neo-colonialism has led to a micro diplomatic scuffle between France and Azerbaijan. 

On Tuesday, the French Foreign Ministry issued a summons to Leyla Abdullayeva, Azerbaijan’s ambassador to France, over comments that President Ilham Aliyev made during a speech at COP29 the previous week. 

The French Foreign Ministry called the comments ‘unacceptable’ and said that ‘Azerbaijan's hostile actions must stop’.

The following day, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry issued its own summons for Anne Boillon, the French ambassador to Azerbaijan, citing a number of ‘actions targeting Azerbaijan and jeopardising the normalisation process [between Armenia and Azerbaijan]’. 

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said France’s behaviour at the beginning of COP29 was ‘unacceptable’, specifically pointing to French calls for other countries to boycott the conference. 

In his second speech at COP29, Aliyev attacked France and other European countries for their alleged ‘neo-colonialism’, citing violent protests in the overseas French territory of New Caledonia earlier this year. He referred to the administration of French President Emmanuel Macron as a ‘regime’ and attributed deaths and arrests at the protest directly to Macron. He also laid the blame on other EU institutions. 

Tensions between France and Azerbaijan have deteriorated in recent months, largely due to France’s support for Armenia. 

Following the speech, French Ecology Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher cancelled her participation in the COP29 conference. 

Following her departure, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov claimed that Pannier-Runacher’s decision was not constructive and that her premature exit from the conference was her own choice. 

‘This is the wrong step for France, a leading country in the European Union, which considers itself one of the leading countries in the field of climate, to remain on the sidelines of the climate issue under any pretext’, Bayramov said. 

 ‘Azerbaijan never confuses the climate issue with other problems of France’, he added. 

Hikmat Hajiyev, an aide to Aliyev, said at the time that, ‘France, which always talks about inclusiveness and encourages constructive criticism, took a resentful position after facing criticism, tried to withdraw, and added a political colouring to the process’.