Another problem, which we did not expect, was attempts to boycott COP29 due to political reasons, and that was very unexpected. I don’t think that any other country which hosted this event faced this kind of resistance.

Axar.az reports that this was stated by President Ilham Aliyev during an interview with local television channels on January 7.

"But we also managed to deal with that. So the boycott failed. Though, as you mentioned, some countries, especially France, were doing their utmost to discredit the event. I have information from my colleagues, presidents, that the French president personally was contacting many of them, saying not to go to Baku. So, even that was used to stop leaders from coming. But it failed. Eighty heads of states and governments came to Baku. That once again demonstrated that Azerbaijan is considered a reliable partner," Aliyev said.