Azerbaijan is leading force to develop regional cooperation-Elnur Aslanov

Full speech of Elnur Aslanov.

"Ladies and gentlemen!

The speech, as can be seen from its title, aims to discuss and study "prospective", in other words, future and given issues in a perspective aspect. We should look towards the future and think in the name of future of Azerbaijani people. As it was states in previous speeches, we have reached an important stage of our independent development. Now we are working on new perspectives, directions and trends.

If we look at near past, we can witness that the state-building in Azerbaijan has gone through many hardships. Of course, these hardships hindered reforms and steps implemented in the field of effective and fair state-building. But national leader Heydar Aliyev eliminated these obstacles and ensured development of Azerbaijani statehood on new traditions. We should draw a lesson from a near past in order not to repeat historical mistakes. Each of us has a task to make our own contribution to the continued course of effective state-building.

And what does effective and fair statehood mean? We need to pay attention to the concept of a state itself, in other words, to its evolution to this end. The state is a main frame working for welfare and safety of people, citizens. Effective statehood means improving necessary conditions for life by using the rights the citizens possess. The justice, as noted by French philosopher Denis Diderot, is to return what one possesses to himself. So, we should ensure free activities of citizens within the legal state with working legislation and we provide and should provide the necessary environment for their economic activities in safe conditions.

The concept of progressive state adopts objective laws of modern times given details of the globalized world and identifies emerging standards of conduct. Thus, the state becomes an active actor in evolvement of current processes. Azerbaijan ensures its development on new democratic foundations. It is not slow to watch the progress of events, but rather leaves its own peculiar trace on pages of a new history. This is main distinguishing feature of our dynamic and progressive state-building process. The world and rules are changing and the mankind is evolving. This is reflected in essential transformation of the state.

Main features of our statehood, trust and confidence between the state and society in line with the core of the social contract is a guarantee for future development of Azerbaijan based on solid foundations. Taking into account peculiar features coming from essence of history of Azerbaijani state paves a way to implement new development strategy with success and eliminate future challenges. I therefore want to build my speech on specific factors and perspective directions and mentioned seven following features:

First, Azerbaijan is located in South Caucasus, which is considered one of the hot points in the world. This is an important factor. We should bear in mind that the processes that take place in a certain geographical location where the state is situated have a direct impact on development of a society and state and efforts to ensure political strategy. Geopolicy experts know this very well that there are close links between policy and geographical location. Therefore, our political strategy takes into account features of the region we live and enables to work out necessary mechanisms to eliminate current and potential threats.

Second, spread of common values and universal concepts in a globalized world cause certain anxiety in terms of developing peculiar features of an individual or a group. However, universality is reflected in protection of national features and peculiarities across the world. All universal concepts and socioeconomic processes in the modern globalized world make it possible to protect national values and view them in the light of general development in a free manner. Otherwise, success is out of the question here. We determine our future development by maintaining our national features.

Third, democracy is our choice and state-building constitutes foundation of our work. Democracy is not imported. The democracy is mastered and developed in the context of national and moral values of every nation and state. Therefore, universal democratic values pave a way for solid economic foundation and enable to realize it in the light of national and moral values and historical development. Democracy is a long path to cover. The experience of Western countries proves this once again. Therefore, it is wrong to expect young states to cover the path that the West has covered for a long period of time in short. Democracy requires time.

Fourth, integration into European institutions is another factor that helps to establish universal democratic values. This is very important for every young state to master democratic features and make it an integral part of lives of citizens.

Fifth, Azerbaijan is a new model of development where democratic institutions are formed on solid economic basis. This model has been formed based on successful development strategy implemented since 1994. Its main feature is that the best choices have been made for the national strategy of Azerbaijan analyzing successes and mistakes of other states.

Sixth, human factor is the main objective of our political, economic and social activities. Effective development of every state depends on welfare of its citizens. Welfare is built on high quality education, health care and social insurance. In this context, the attention towards NGOs, media outlets and youth organizations in Azerbaijan and the programs implemented aims to improve harmony in relations between a state and citizen. The State Program on Azerbaijani Youth in 2011-2015 signed in 2011 provides a ground to form new creative and intelligent generation.

Sevenths is the formation of a strong civil society. Constant improvements in relations between the state and third sector and deep involvement of civil society institutions in various areas have formed mutually effective cooperation mechanism between them. This is striking example of how the Azerbaijani state acts in a transparent way in the context of public control. On the other hand, the state is interested in activity of civil society institutions. The creation of the Council for State Assistance to NGOs and Fund for State Support to Media can serve as example. The funds issued by the Azerbaijani state aim to give impetus to work of these organizations and ensure their active participation in public discussions. It is an important factor to appreciate the work done. If someone has a biased attitude towards this, it points to his economic illiteracy.

This makes us mention two points related to Azerbaijan’s current development prospects.

First of all, Azerbaijan serves as a bridge at the crossroads of the West and East. The states that have historically existed in Azerbaijan maintained close political and diplomatic ties with Europe and developed economic and trade relations. The fact that the historical Silk Road crosses the territory of Azerbaijan gave a particular impetus to this. Today Azerbaijan remains committed to old traditions by developing ties with both Europe and Asia. At the same time, European integration and current relations with European institutions have made Azerbaijan an integral part of European family.

It should be noted that Azerbaijan is an active participants of the Eastern partnership program launched by the European Union in May 2009. This cooperation framework will enable to deepen our relations with the European Union both in economic and political field. On the other hand, as a reliable energy partner of Europe, Azerbaijan has become an important actor in European energy security. The demand for oil and gas resources of Azerbaijan is growing constantly on the backdrop of growing consumption of energy products in Europe. The protocol of intent signed with the European Union shows Azerbaijan’s will to cooperate.

At the same time, we want the European Union to play more active role in resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, to seek to make Armenia take a constructive stance and solve the conflict as soon as possible. The political, economic and institutional means the organization possesses opens broad opportunities to accomplish such a mission. Europe is also interested in this. This is because the fact that the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh has become an uncontrolled ground for illegal activities known as "gray zones" in Europe is a source of anxiety for everyone. This territory is used to grow and transit drugs.

The second point is that Azerbaijan is leading force to develop regional cooperation. Development of regional cooperation is of great significance in modern world and allows the states in the same region to search for joint ways to overcome challenges. The regional cooperation processes around the world are striking examples of this. What is important is the convergence of national policies and harmony of actions.

Regional cooperation evolves not around abstract ideas, but rather issues that cause specific economic interest. In this context, the regional projects implemented and supported by Azerbaijan, oil and gas pipelines and investments of Azerbaijani companies in neighboring states encourages growth in mutual trade, intensified efforts to build cooperation and creation of a new legal framework.

These projects are also important in terms of regional security. They enable the states in the region to eliminate current and potential threats and challenges by effective joint action.

One can speak about this for long. But I am summing up my speech given lack of time. I want to note at the end that effective and fair statehood are the key target that the state and society want to achieve together. This is choice the Azerbaijani state will adhere to in coming years.

Thank you for your attention."