The holding in Washington of the first meeting of the Peace Council, established at the initiative of US President Donald Trump, is assessed as a new stage in global diplomacy, Mushfig Aleskerli, a member of the board of the National Press Council, commented to the Azerbaijani news agency AZERTAC, BTA reported.
According to him, the growth of this initiative into a concrete institutional platform soon after the announcement of its establishment in January during the World Economic Forum strengthens optimism about its future. The presence of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev among the leaders invited to the meeting, as well as the special respect shown to him by the US leader, can be taken as an indicator of Baku's growing role in the international agenda and security.
According to the interlocutor, one of the main factors for Azerbaijan's participation in the Peace Council is the strategic dialogue between Baku and Washington that has intensified in recent years.
„In August last year, a meeting was held at the White House between President Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, mediated by Donald Trump, which gave new impetus to the normalization process in the region. The Strategic Partnership Charter, signed in early February during the visit to Baku by US Vice President J.D. Vance, brings cooperation between the two countries in the fields of security, energy, transport and the digital economy to an institutional level. Against this background, Azerbaijan's participation in the Peace Council and the special emphasis on this fact by Donald Trump seems to be a logical outcome of the process“, said Aleskerli.
“It should be taken into account that the prospects of the Peace Council are not limited to Gaza. The Trump administration plans to turn this platform into a flexible mechanism for managing global crises in the future. It is expected that energy security, climate challenges, regional conflicts and humanitarian crises will occupy a central place in the Council's future agenda. Azerbaijan, with its energy resources, transit opportunities within the “Middle Corridor“ and a model of multicultural governance, is among the countries capable of making a real contribution to this platform“, the media expert emphasized.
According to him, Aliyev's participation in the first session of the Council, the meetings held and participation in the discussions give grounds to claim that the president has chosen the path of active participation in the formation of the new global security architecture. This strategy should be seen as an important step serving both regional stability and Azerbaijan's long-term national interests.