Azerbaijan’s Hostile Actions Must Stop, French MFA Says

PARIS — The Azerbaijani Ambassador to France Leyla Abdullayeva was summoned to the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs on Tuesday, November 19.

According to the Ministry, this follows the unacceptable remarks made against France and Europeans by the Azerbaijani authorities in the context of COP29 and as a result of which the Minister of Ecological Transition, Energy, Climate and Risk Prevention, Ms. Agnès Pannier-Runacher, had to cancel her participation in this United Nations conference.

“Azerbaijan’s hostile actions must stop,” the MFA stated.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev used a gathering of island leaders at this year’s COP29 climate talks to attack France and the Netherlands for maintaining overseas territories.

The Azerbaijani president tied climate change to “neocolonialism” as he vowed to support small island nations in their fight against rising sea levels.

“The so-called overseas territories of France and Netherlands, particularly in the Caribbean and the Pacific, are among the most severely impacted” by climate change, Aliyev told the leaders’ summit of small island developing countries at COP29. “The voices of these communities are often brutally suppressed by the regimes.”

He went on to list the territories, which he called “colonies,” and examples of how the French and Dutch administrations had caused “environmental degradation,” such as France’s nuclear testing in French Polynesia and Algeria.

Aliyev then spoke at length about this year’s violent unrest in New Caledonia, which he blamed on the “regime” of President Emmanuel Macron.