BAKU, Azerbaijan, Oct. 23
By Asif Mehman - Trend:
After the closed meeting of the UN Security Council on October 19 in connection with Armenia’s aggression against Azerbaijan, the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, the US and France, drew up a draft statement of the chairman of the Security Council (Russia is the chairman in accordance with the rotation rules in October) and disseminated it among the member-states for coordination.
The main point in the statement was that there were no references to the UN Security Council’s resolutions #822, 853, 874 and 884. In response, seven countries of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) - Indonesia, Niger, Vietnam, Tunisia, South Africa, the Dominican Republic, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines proposed to include a reference to the UN resolutions in the draft, however, the co-chair countries rejected this proposal and reported that it was inadmissible.
Although the co-chair countries tried twice to adopt the statement, the NAM countries insisted on including the references to the resolutions. Only afterwards the co-chairs disgracefully withdraw the draft statement.
The co-chairs forget that these resolutions were adopted unanimously in 1993 and all three co-chairs voted for them. Why did not the co-chairs want these resolutions to be reflected in the statement?
The reason is that the resolutions contain a demand for the withdrawal of Armenian troops from Azerbaijani lands. In response to these resolutions, Armenia, ignoring international law and Security Council’s resolutions, not only did not withdraw its occupation troops from the Azerbaijani territories, but continued to strengthen the consequences of the occupation and chose the way of annexing the lands of other country.
The activity and steps taken by the OSCE Minsk Group to date show that Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs are to blame for the unresolved conflict.
The UN Security Council has lost its authority and power because its resolutions are not being fulfilled. The Council became hostage to its permanent members.
The absence of neutral countries among the permanent members of the Security Council also greatly undermines the activity of the Council. Why must not such countries as Turkey, Pakistan, Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa be permanent members of the Security Council? Why is not there a single country from Africa or South America among the permanent members of the Security Council?
NAM member-states have demonstrated their commitment to the principles and values of the Movement by upholding justice and international law. This fair position of the NAM countries once again proves that the Movement is a serious factor in the system of international relations.
Sometimes a number of opposition representatives put forward erroneous statements, for example: "Why does Azerbaijan need to join the Non-Aligned Movement?" or "Why do other countries receive humanitarian and financial assistance?"
But they do not understand that the foreign policy of President Aliyev is the balanced, thoughtful, long-term foreign policy. Azerbaijan was elected chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement for the authority and trust that it gained in a short period of time.
President Aliyev, on behalf of the NAM countries, initiated the convening of a special session of the UN General Assembly on coronavirus, which was supported by more than 130 countries. Azerbaijan rendered financial and humanitarian assistance to more than 30 countries in connection with COVID-19.
Rejecting an unfair UN statement is another diplomatic victory of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.