Leaders call for unified response to worldwide problems at Baku Global Forum

World leaders, decision-makers and policymakers came together at the 11th Global Baku Forum in Azerbaijan to discuss shared concerns.

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev welcomed over four current and 40 former presidents and prime ministers. “If we compare what we discussed last March and what we are discussing today we see substantial changes. Geopolitical changes,” he said.

This was a sentiment echoed by President of Albania Bajram Begaj who called for a “unified response" to global challenges. “Indeed, we are living in unprecedented times. There is a lot going on. We have political instability. We have economic disparities. We have climate change. We have health challenges. Of course, education. We have social injustice. But those challenges we are facing cannot be dealt (with) alone,” he said.

The theme of the event was “fixing the fractured world” and there were resounding calls to modernise outdated institutions and for global governance.

“We are in a situation where the world has dramatically changed over the last 70 years and we are still living in a world with an architecture that has been designed a long time ago,” said Jean-Claude Trichet, former president of the European Central Bank and former governor of the Bank of France.


He also gave a stark warning about the state of the global economic order, saying: “We are living in a highly dangerous financial and economic world, that, with some indicators, is even more fragile than it was immediately before the last big (financial) crisis.” He added that Europe needs to catch up with the rest of the world and “reinforce the functioning of the continental institution”.

Winnie Byanyima, executive director at UNAIDS and under-secretary-general of the UN believes that