Azerbaijan chief accuses France of colonial ‘crimes’ in COP29 speech | Data

French Ecology Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher says she shouldn’t be going to take part throughout the COP29 native climate talks in Azerbaijan after its chief’s ‘unacceptable’ assaults on France.

French Ecology Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher has pulled out of the COP29 native climate talks in Azerbaijan after its President Ilham Aliyev accused France of ending up colonialist “crimes” in New Caledonia, throughout the latest diplomatic spat between the two nations.

Aliyev, who’s web internet hosting the COP29 United Nations native climate talks in Baku, drew loud applause from delegates of some Pacific island nations after a combative speech by which he lambasted Paris over the response to protests that in Might rocked the Pacific archipelago dominated by France.

“The crimes of France in its so-called overseas territories would not be full with out mentioning the most recent human rights violations,” acknowledged Aliyev.

“The regime of President [Emmanuel] Macron killed 13 of us and wounded 169… all through skilled protests by the Kanak of us in New Caledonia,” he added.

Pannier-Runacher shortly hit once more, telling lawmakers in Paris that she was cancelling her journey to the talks in protest at Aliyev’s “deplorable” speech. She often called his assault “unacceptable… and beneath the dignity of the presidency of the COP”.

It was moreover a “flagrant violation of the code of conduct” for working United Nations native climate talks, she added.

The minister moreover criticised Aliyev for his “equally unacceptable suggestions on fossil fuels” after he described his nation’s large oil and gasoline reserves as a “current of God”.

No matter her pullout, Pannier-Runacher acknowledged the workforce of French negotiators in Baku would not relent of their efforts to do a deal “to protect the planet and its populations” from native climate change.

Relations between Paris and Baku are frosty over France’s longtime help for its archrival Armenia, which Azerbaijan defeated in a lightning navy offensive closing 12 months when it retook the breakaway Armenian-populated space of Nagorno-Karabakh – ensuing within the displacement of better than 100,000 Armenians.

Paris this 12 months accused Azerbaijan of interfering in its dwelling politics by stoking tensions in its overseas territories and dependencies, along with New Caledonia.

Macron has moreover stayed away from COP29.

Azerbaijan denies interference, nonetheless Aliyev on Wednesday rounded on France for holding Corsica and its far-flung overseas island territories “beneath the colonial yoke”.

Aliyev has dominated his gas-rich nation for better than twenty years given that dying of his father, Azerbaijan’s Soviet-era Communist chief and former KGB frequent Heydar Aliyev.

Throughout the run-up to the native climate summit, Azerbaijan was extensively denounced for its human rights doc and repression of political opposition.

Aliyev in his speech attacked the European Union and the Council of Europe human rights physique, calling them “symbols of political corruption that share accountability with the federal authorities of President Macron for the killings of innocent of us”.

He moreover acknowledged that “all political prisoners of France must be liberated”.

Aliyev accused EU worldwide protection chief Josep Borell of getting in distinction the rest of the world to a jungle whereas Europe was a yard. “If we are the jungles,” he declared, “then steer clear of us and don’t intervene in our affairs.”