BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 17. Azerbaijan’s hosting of international events in recent years represents a process that goes far beyond a mere chronology of individual conferences and meetings. Baku has increasingly become a venue where diverse political stances, regional interests, and global challenges are discussed at the same table. In this regard, Baku’s ability to bring together political, economic, security, humanitarian, cultural, and climate-related topics within a single diplomatic framework has gradually expanded its role as an international platform.
This landscape didn’t take shape in one day. Over many years, Azerbaijan has established itself as a venue open to dialogue by hosting international events of varying scales. It has served as a hub for discussions on a wide range of topics—from energy and transport issues to intercultural and interfaith dialogue, and from multilateral diplomacy to media and information agendas. Azerbaijan’s chairmanship of the Non-Aligned Movement in 2019 enabled this trajectory to extend into a broader political arena. During that period, the country positioned itself not merely as a regional player, but as an active participant in multilateral platforms addressing the agendas of developing nations and the Global South. The subsequent inclusion of the climate agenda in the map of international events gave new substance to this process.
Azerbaijan’s hosting of COP29 in 2024 marked one of the largest international events the country has ever held, in terms of both scale and the geographical diversity of participants. Within the framework of COP29—which saw representation from 96 countries—issues such as climate finance, carbon markets, adaptation, and the needs of developing nations became central themes of global negotiations. One of the conference's outcomes was an agreement establishing a core annual financial target of $300 billion for developing countries by 2035, alongside a goal to increase broader financial flows to $1.3 trillion annually. The significance of COP29 for Azerbaijan extends beyond the mere scale of the event. The country took on the role of keeping global actors—who held divergent views—at the negotiating table and guiding them toward common ground. Baku became a platform for negotiations on an agenda as complex as climate diplomacy—one directly intertwined with finance, development, energy, and geopolitics.
Baku stands not merely as a capital where the problems of a specific region are discussed, but as a platform that brings together diverse geographies and agendas. One of the clearest examples of this is the series of Global Media Forums held in Shusha in recent years. The 4th Shusha Global Media Forum, held in July 2026, brought together 160 participants from 53 countries, including representatives from international media outlets and organizations.
The choice of Shusha isn't a coincidence. Alongside Baku, Shusha is becoming part of Azerbaijan’s landscape for international dialogue. While Baku serves primarily as a venue for political, economic, and global institutional agendas, Shusha is emerging as a symbolic setting for discussions on peace, media, culture, and post-conflict realities. Thus, geography itself conveys a message within Azerbaijan’s policy on international events; the country presents various topics to international audiences not only in its capital but also in diverse cities and locations across the nation. This sequence of events shouldn’t be viewed merely as a crowded schedule. On the contrary, what stands out is the convergence of various levels of cooperation within the Turkic world in a single location.
The series of international conferences organized by the Organization of Turkic States from September 13 to 18 of this year shouldn't be regarded just as a matter of a busy calendar. Baku has become a hub that brings together various channels of political, security, expert, and humanitarian dialogue within a single organizational framework.
In short, the aim here goes beyond merely "bringing the world to Baku." A more critical objective is to interconnect diverse agendas. Security and humanitarian issues, climate and development, energy and the green transition, media and the promotion of peace and trust, and the integration of the Turkic world alongside expert diplomacy—these are no longer isolated topics. In modern international relations, these areas are becoming increasingly intertwined, and Azerbaijan leverages precisely these intersections in its approach to hosting events. The chronicle of international events held in Azerbaijan is, in fact, a record of the broader diplomatic strategy the country has shaped in recent years. At the heart of this strategy lies a single concept: uniting diverse geographies, interests, perspectives, and agendas within a shared forum for discussion.
