The new Secretary-General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation had already chosen Baku as his destination quite early. Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, a diplomat from Mauritania who was elected as the Secretary-General in Jeddah on August 27th, was accorded a reception by the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, on October 26th – one of the early visits made at the beginning of his term. It was a symbolic visit meant to indicate that Azerbaijan will be hosting the OIC summit next year.
Politically speaking, it is well deserved. But the more serious aspect concerns what Azerbaijan makes of its opportunity. Being a chairman provides publicity for one year, but it can provide economic gains for a decade if it uses the OIC both as a political organization and as an economic network.
Azerbaijan became an OIC member soon after gaining independence, and it is already 35 years into its membership in the organization. In 2004, Azerbaijan organized the OIC Youth Forum; in 2013, as president of the UN Security Council, it initiated the first high-level meeting concerning cooperation between the OIC and UN, and in 2017 announced a “Year of Islamic Solidarity” and held the Islamic Solidarity Games. For more than 30 years of occupation of its territory, Azerbaijan received support from the OIC in the form of resolutions and a contact group on the conflict, and after the 2020 war, the OIC criticized the occupation and praised the reconstruction of Azerbaijan.
As for Ould Cheikh Ahmed, he congratulated President Aliyev on the restoration of sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and supported him in establishing peace. Baku has also discovered an issue that allows it to be in the lead, not lag behind: Islamophobia. It has made holding conferences on this matter a part of its diplomacy, which was received with open arms by UN special envoy Miguel Ángel Moratinos, who appreciated its position, and it makes voluntary donations to the UN Alliance of Civilizations.
At the last conference, Ilham Aliyev and the Secretary-General talked about their joint fight against disinformation. According to the officials from Azerbaijan, organizations like the European Parliament and PACE associate Islam with extremism. Opponents argue that these same organizations simply criticized the human rights situation in Baku.
But politics, as much as they are intertwined with it, is not business. Intra-group trade within the organization of 57 member states had grown to $555 billion by 2025, accounting for 20.1% of their total goods trade. This is a slight rise from 19.3% in 2021, but is well below the 25% target set by the OIC for 2025.
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