On November 20, the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs announced that Azerbaijan’s Ambassador to France had been summoned on November 19.

The summons was reportedly prompted by "unacceptable remarks about France and the Europeans made by Azerbaijani authorities at COP29," which led French Minister for Ecological Transition, Energy, the Climate, and Risk Prevention, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, to cancel her participation in the United Nations conference. The French Foreign Ministry stated: "Azerbaijan’s hostile acts must cease."

On the same day, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that Anne Boillon, the French Ambassador to Azerbaijan, had been summoned.

During the meeting, Azerbaijani officials expressed their disapproval of France’s actions, which they claimed were directed against Azerbaijan’s chairmanship of the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29). They criticized calls for a boycott of the event, France’s alleged encouragement of state leaders to abstain from attending, and the European Parliament’s resolution, which they argued unfairly targeted Azerbaijan’s chairmanship and climate efforts. Azerbaijani representatives deemed these actions baseless and accused France of orchestrating them.

Azerbaijan further condemned France for extensively arming Armenia and fostering militarism and revanchism, which they argued jeopardized the peace process and threatened the normalization of relations in the region.

As previously reported by Caucasus Watch, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov criticized French Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher's decision to boycott COP29 in Baku, describing it as an "unconstructive approach." The French minister had cited Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s accusations of French colonial crimes, including those in New Caledonia, as the reason for her absence.

President Aliyev had accused France of human rights violations during protests in New Caledonia and condemned its "colonial" policies. In response, Pannier-Runacher labeled Aliyev’s rhetoric as "unacceptable" but affirmed that France would continue to participate remotely in the conference.