At the beginning, allow me to convey good wishes to all of you. And at the same time, I would like to express my deepest regrets that my obligations in this period prevented me from being in Baku in person with you. I would like to extend my best regards to the respected President of Azerbaijan Mr. Ilham Aliyev, for organizing the gathering which includes such eminent personalities who in the next two days will be discussing biggest and toughest challenges of our time under the organization of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center. I do believe that the wisdom and deep political experience will contribute to our competent debate out of which will come out not only a diagnosis, but with solutions for our problems as well. I am especially grateful to the Nizami Ganjavi International Center for their initiatives which very frequently include the temporary Western Balkans dynamism and challenges. Memories from our last encounter in New-York in September last year when we discussed the pandemic, security and Euro-Atlantic are in my mind. On that occasion, as some of you will recollect, we agreed that dialogue is the only channel for the civilized individuals whenever looking for problem solution. We the Balkan people have learned that not from the books but unfortunately from our tragic, not so distant past whose consequences are felt up to these days. And exactly at the moment when COVID-19 was lessening the grip of the world, something unimaginable happened. The war in Ukraine which in the past four month killed so many people and ruined the life of many others. The war in Ukraine has confirmed that the local war does not exist anymore. Nowadays all conflicts are global since their consequences immediately radiate throughout the globe. Apart from the immense suffering of the Ukrainians, the war has provoked economic recession, energy crisis and disruption of the vital supply chains to the food markets virtually on all continents. Because of the war, the quality of peoples’ life is going down day by day. And the gap is deepening and widening between and within the states as well. Dear friends, unprecedented challenges are confronting our generation. Apart from simultaneously dealing with the ambitious agendas on climate changes, millennium development goals, and the still ongoing pandemic after 24 February, our top priority is to be restoring the peace in Ukraine and preventing further global downturn in all vital sectors.

Ladies and gentlemen, I’m a firm believer in the rationality of the ordinary people together with the responsible political leaders have to find a way out of this difficult period for the human kind. No individual would like to live in the world where the force prevail and powerful hold the upper hand of the peace-loving citizens. If we accept permanent instability as a new norm, future generations will never forgive us for such a colossal failure.

Dear friends, I wish you a fruitful debate and I thank you for your attention.”