Did World Leaders Pay Less Attention to COP29?

On November 12, the summit of world leaders commenced at the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP29) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Baku.

According to "Euronews," citing sources from the UN, the event is attended by around 100 heads of state.

However, some prominent leaders did not attend COP29. Among those absent are German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, King Charles III of the United Kingdom, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron, U.S. President Joe Biden, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Notably, Blinken had attended COP28 held in Dubai a year ago. This time, the U.S. is represented by President Biden’s Senior Advisor for International Climate Policy, John Podesta.

Other notable absentees include Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, and several other heads of state. They attributed their absence primarily to domestic issues in their respective countries. Additionally, some international organizations raised concerns about human rights and political prisoners in Azerbaijan ahead of the conference, even calling for a boycott of COP29.

Responding to questions about these calls for a boycott on November 12, Hikmet Hajiyev, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan, stated, "To call for a boycott of COP29, one should look around: More than 70,000 foreign and local participants are attending this event. Thus, the claim you mentioned is not at all applicable to this event."

However, Elshad Musayev, a member of the Azerbaijani parliament, expressed a different view. He told Turan News Agency that the more countries participated, the better it would have been, and noted that many political leaders had indeed attended the conference. "This, in itself, serves to improve relations between countries. As a state, we were keen for them to come," Musayev remarked.

Musayev also noted that the heads of state who did not attend provided various reasons for their absence: "This is their internal affair. Some had genuinely serious reasons for not participating. However, the issue of democracy and the West’s stance on it was something we heard frequently in the 1990s. Over time, the Azerbaijani public realized that Western democracy was primarily for their own interests."

According to Musayev, the West acts in its own interests when dealing with other countries: "Many of these Western countries maintain strong relations with certain Arab states. Is there democracy there? Or look at France exploiting African countries – does this align with democracy? Armenia occupied Azerbaijani territories, yet these supposedly democratic countries supported Armenia. This democracy narrative is an excuse. Their absence simply does not align with their interests."

Rufat Safarov, co-founder of the human rights organization "Defense Line," told Radio Azadliq that it was clear from the start that Western countries would not be represented at a high level at the event: "There were some indications of this beforehand. Now it is apparent that the leaders of major political power centers are not attending the conference for various reasons."

The human rights advocate believes that the repressive measures within Azerbaijan, along with the restriction of fundamental rights and freedoms, played a significant role. He noted that in recent years, there has been consistent pressure from the West on Azerbaijan regarding human rights issues: "Unfortunately, official Baku has not drawn any conclusions from this. On the contrary, the government's response has been to adopt an even harsher stance towards political freedoms within the country."