Aliyev excludes Russia from his list of global superpowers

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev described the United States and China as the world’s only two superpowers in a speech to the governing New Azerbaijan Party on 2 October, leaving Russia outside that category. His remarks were part of a broader account of Baku’s foreign policy and its experience in the wars over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Addressing the party’s eighth congress at the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, Aliyev said Azerbaijan had recently established strategic partnerships with both Washington and Beijing. A comprehensive strategic partnership declaration was signed with China, while a Strategic Charter was signed with the United States. “These are the world’s two superpowers; there is no third,” he said in the official English transcript of his speech.

Aliyev did not name Russia in that passage. His formulation nevertheless excludes Moscow from the group of powers he called superpowers. The statement came from the leader of a former Soviet republic in the South Caucasus, where Russia has long played a major military and political role.

Karabakh and the former Minsk Group

Turning to the conflicts with Armenia, Aliyev argued that Azerbaijan had fought without outside assistance and accused the former co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group of siding with Armenia. The three co-chair countries were Russia, the United States and France. “But we stood alone. All those big backers were against us. The co-chairs of the Minsk Group were against us,” he said. These are the Azerbaijani president’s allegations, rather than independently established judgments about the mediators’ conduct.

Aliyev said Azerbaijan had not received free or discounted weapons. “Whatever we acquired, we purchased with money. That includes all weapons, which were bought with money at world prices—down to the last bullet,” he said. He further claimed that some equipment had been sold at several times the international market price.

The president framed military strength and independence from outside patrons as continuing priorities. In a warning against interference in Azerbaijan’s affairs, he said his government would answer a single blow with “maybe 2, 5, 10 blows.” He also argued that foreign policy should become more proactive and that Baku would not join a geopolitical camp.

The speech placed those remarks alongside Azerbaijan’s relations with China, the United States and European countries. Aliyev said Baku had strategic partnership arrangements with 10 EU member states and stressed that its relationships with the two powers he called superpowers rested on trust in Azerbaijan’s commitments.