Distinguished Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev,

Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,

Good evening! It is such a pleasure to celebrate the 74th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China with you all, our friends from Azerbaijan and diplomatic corps, and Chinese people abroad in Azerbaijan! Please allow me to extend the warmest welcome to our guests, sincere greetings to my compatriots, and heartfelt thanks to people from all walks of life who have always supported and taken an active interest in China–Azerbaijan relations! Thank you!

Over the past 74 years, the Chinese people have remained true to their original aspirations and worked hard to embark on the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The Chinese nation has achieved a tremendous transformation, from standing up, growing rich to becoming strong. Its great rejuvenation has become part of an irreversible historical process. The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China concluded successfully last October. It established that the central task of the Communist Party of China will be to lead the Chinese people of all ethnic groups in a concerted effort to realize the Second Centenary Goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects, and to advance the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through a Chinese path to modernization. This is a grand blueprint for China’s future development.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of President Xi Jinping’s proposal on building a community with a shared future for mankind. As a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, the world’s second-largest economy, and the only civilization that has not been interrupted in history, China shoulders the important responsibility of upholding world peace, common development, and progress with courage. It has proposed the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative, offering Chinese wisdom and a Chinese approach to solving world development difficulties, responding to world security challenges, and promoting exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations. The idea of “building a community with a shared future for mankind” has gained increasing popularity. China will always be a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, and a promoter of human progress.

China and Azerbaijan enjoy a longstanding traditional friendship despite the distant and arduous journey between the two countries. From the ancient Silk Road to the joint construction of the Belt and Road, our mutual political trust and strategic collaboration have steadily deepened. Our practical cooperation has yielded productive results, and our humanitarian and cultural ties have strengthened, leading us to a broader path of cooperation and more promising prospects for development. China–Azerbaijan relations have reached unprecedented heights, and the two countries have become good friends and partners with a shared destiny. The successful meeting of President Xi Jinping and President Ilham Aliyev during the Samarkand Summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization last September set the direction for the future development of bilateral relations.

China and Azerbaijan have experienced an upsurge in bilateral high-level exchanges in 2023. President Ilham Aliyev spoke positively about China–Azerbaijan relations and the significance of the Belt and Road Initiative during an exclusive interview with CGTN, which received widespread attention and an enthusiastic response. The Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan, the Vice-Chairman of the New Azerbaijan Party, the special representative of the President and many ministers have visited China. The first commemoration ceremony dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of National Leader of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev abroad was held in Beijing. High-level delegations from China attended the Non-Aligned Movement Summit and the 10th Global Baku Forum and will participate in the second Azerbaijan National Urban Forum and the 74th International Astronautical Congress, which will be held in Baku in early October this year. Furthermore, His Excellency Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev will soon visit China and chair the ninth meeting of the China–Azerbaijan Intergovernmental  Committee on Trade and Economic Cooperation, with a view to fully implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state and promote the rapid development of pragmatic China–Azerbaijan cooperation in various fields. With our co-construction of the Belt and Road making solid progress, more than 10 China–Europe freight train lines passing through Azerbaijan, a list of provinces and cities establishing sister-city relationships, people-to-people and cultural exchanges flourishing, and bilateral trade and investment cooperation expanding in depth and breadth, we have every reason to believe that, under the strategic guidance of the two heads of states, China–Azerbaijan relations will surely have a bright future.

Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,

China has stridden through the past 74 years of ups and downs. The Chinese nation stays true to its original aspirations, weathering all the vicissitudes and hardships in history. The Chinese people follow the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics with unswerving commitment, advancing the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through a Chinese path to modernization. Ladies and gentlemen, will you please join me now in a toast to world peace and development, the everlasting friendship and shared prosperity between China and Azerbaijan, and the health and happiness of all our friends. Cheers!

Thank you!