International support for the initiative of the President Ilham Aliyev, as the Chairman of the Non-aligned movement, related to the holding special session of the UN General Assembly, dedicated to COVID-19.

The worldwide coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), along with serious health problems that put the people's lives at risk, has created devastating global socio-economic and humanitarian threats, negative consequences of which will be felt for a long time. In the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is compared to a world war, there is great need for global solidarity and global vision instead of self-isolation and fragmented measures. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in the world, under the leadership of the President Ilham Aliyev, the Republic of Azerbaijan has put forward initiatives and taken practical steps necessary to strengthen international solidarity in the fighting against the coronavirus at regional and global levels. Despite that Azerbaijan is young state, it has great authority and trust in the world. The approach to the initiatives that our country has recently taken in the world is clear proof of this. Main reason for it is pragmatic policy pursued by the President Ilham Aliyev and his will to achieve set goals. The President's calls for unity and solidarity addressed to the world countries related to the fighting against the coronavirus pandemic have further increased the authority of Azerbaijan in the world. While the countries of the world were looking for the methods to fight the coronavirus, the President of Azerbaijan made global appeal and called the states to fight against single enemy together. At the initiative of the President of Azerbaijan, online summit on the “COVID-19” pandemic was organized at the level of heads of states and governments of the Turkic Council on April 10, 2020, and online summit of the Non-aligned movement Contact group was organized on May 4. During the speech of the President Ilham Aliyev at the online summit of the Non-aligned movement, the world countries unanimously agreed to the offer to hold special session of the UN General Assembly through a video conference at the level of heads of states and governments with the purpose of the fighting against the pandemic as an example of global solidarity, and informed the office of the Secretary-General that they support the initiative. International support by about 130 countries, which are the members of the UN, for the initiative of the President Ilham Aliyev, as the Chairman of the Non-aligned movement, related to the holding special session of the UN General Assembly, dedicated to COVID-19, is another indicator of great trust and respect of international community towards our country. The only state that opposed this initiative was Armenia. While all the world emphasizes the importance of global solidarity in the fighting against COVID-19, Armenia, by opposing this global initiative, has once again disgraced itself among the world countries and demonstrated its true reactionary nature. In the letters, addressed to the UN Secretary-General on this matter from different states, ranging from permanent members of the UN Security Council to small island states, it was emphasized that the initiative of the President Ilham Aliyev related to holding Special session of the UN General Assembly was timely and very high-demand initiative. Since the initiative put forward by the President Ilham Aliyev and defended by the Non-aligned movement member countries was accepted by the majority of the world countries, the holding of special session has become common matter not only for the Non-aligned movement countries, but also for all the UN member countries. Special session will create the conditions for complete mobilization of international community in response to the pandemic and will make positive contribution to the search for global response to this global threat. The Republic of Azerbaijan, during its chairmanship at the Non-aligned movement, under the leadership of the President Ilham Aliyev, will continue its activities aimed at multilateralism, uniting the world countries in connection with common threats and strengthening global solidarity. Our people also support large-scale policy pursued by our President.