On 3 October, the Valdai Discussion Club took place in Sochi, Russia. Almost one and a half hundred experts from 37 countries, as well as politicians, government officials, representatives of the UN and the European Union, participated in the forum. 

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev participated at the event where he met with the Russian President Vladimir Putin and held a speech about the international challenges Azerbaijan is facing.

At the official meeting with the Azerbaijani President, Putin highlighted that the relations between Azerbaijan and Russia were “developing successfully.” “Trade and economic ties are strengthening. Last year, bilateral trade was $2.5 billion. We have good prospects in this field. We do everything we can to have these projects, large projects to be implemented,” said Putin in regard to the economic cooperation between the two countries. He also highlighted that “there is a need to discuss developments in other areas of the Azerbaijani-Russian relations” as well.

“I would also like to note the positive dynamics in trade and the economy. Our bilateral trade has been growing both last year and this year. According to our data, trade was up 20 percent by August. The implementation of the roadmaps you and I have adopted will result in closer interaction, integration and cooperation in all areas.” said Aliyev to Putin.

At the meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and made a number of noteworthy statements: “As for the situation on the ground, I would say - now it is much calmer than a year ago.  But here the political process is inhibited, and so far it is not possible to remove this brake.  The parties are making statements that are quite serious, including statements that 'Karabakh is Armenia', just as the Prime Minister of Albania stated from Tirana: “Kosovo is Albania.”  This, of course, does not help create an atmosphere for the resumption of the political process” Lavrov said, referring to the statement made by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during a rally in Stepanakert in August this year.

The President of Azerbaijan also spoke about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict at the main plenary session of the Valdai Forum. Aliyev criticized the UN Security Council because of the situation with Karabakh and doubted the effectiveness of this body. “We in Azerbaijan are concerned about the selective nature of implementation of resolutions. Sometimes UN Security Council resolutions are implemented within a few days, and sometimes hostilities take place without a UN mandate at all.  In the case of Karabakh, the resolutions remained on paper" Aliyev said. He then referred to Pashinyan’s statement in Karabakh by saying that “Karabakh is a historic land of Azerbaijan. Thus, Karabakh is Azerbaijan and exclamation mark.”

Fyodor Lukyanov, one of the founders of Valdai International Discussion Club, member of Presidium of Russian Council on International Affairs, and the moderator of the plenary session noted that Aliyev’s statement was an inevitable response to Pashinyan’s known statement: “Speeches of heads of states in the plenary session of Valdai Club showed that international policy is pressed by internal policy too much in the modern world. Most political leaders do not try to solve international problems, but to achieve own goals within their countries. Armenian PM Pashinyan well understands the interior condition of the country. He demonstrated that he worked for an internal audience primarily by releasing known statement. Therefore, I think that President Ilham Aliyev's statement on Karabakh at the Valdai forum was an inevitable response to Pashinyan's known statement,“ he said.

The German political expert Alexander Rar agreed to Lukanyov’s remarks that Aliyev’s speech was a natural reaction to Pashinyan’s statement and that that an international forum delivered the fitting audience for such a statement, adding that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the main issue in Azerbaijani politics.

The Valdai Discussion Club was established in 2004. It is named after Lake Valdai, which is located close to Veliky Novgorod, where the Club’s first meeting took place. It is an international political forum where representatives of the international scholarly community and key political figures participate. In 2014, the Club moved away from the format of “telling the world about Russia” to practical work aimed at forming the global agenda and delivering a qualified and objective assessment of global political and economic issues. One of its main objectives is to promote dialogue among the global intellectual elite in order to find solutions to overcome the crises of the international system. The topic of this year’s conference was “The Dawn of the East and the World Political Order” which primarily focused on the questions about the influence of the East on the world order, and about a changing world where the role of Asia is growing and non-Western perspectives and political systems are coming to the fore.