By Lee Kap-soo

(New Year Message)
Dear readers of the Diplomacy Journal,

The year 2023, which is coming to an end, wrote the next page of success story of fruitful cooperation between the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Seoul and Diplomacy Journal. 

In 2023, Azerbaijan and Korea continued to work closely to strengthen our promising bilateral relations and mutually beneficial cooperation as well to enhance people-to-people contacts. I am very glad that we have a very reliable partner such as Diplomacy Journal which was actively accompanying us around the whole year by publishing news on our aforementioned efforts and so far, fostering the awareness of friendly Korean people about my country, its agenda and its ties with Korea. 

I very much appreciate that Diplomacy Journal plays an essential role in communicating Azerbaijan’s realities and news, particularly Embassy’s activities to the Korean public.

To this end, I would like to express my gratitude to Diplomacy Journal for its interest in our country and in its topics, including those related to our relations with Korea and I wish good luck for its mission towards promoting closer friendship and stronger partnership between Azerbaijan and Korea, as well as further rapprochement of the diplomatic community accredited in Korea. 

Despite ongoing worldwide issues which challenged also 2023, Azerbaijan continued to successfully implement its strategic vision in its domestic affairs and foreign policy under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev. We are proud to have made valuable progress in all spheres as well as in advancing our agenda in international arena. 

This year marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Heydar Aliyev, the National Leader of Azerbaijani people, the founder of the modern, mighty, independent state of Azerbaijan. My country’s sustainable development also over 20 years after his passing away owes his far-sighted governance strategy, which is still being consistently pursued. 

One of historic achievements of Azerbaijan this year was full restoration of Azerbaijan’s sovereignty over its whole state territory as a result of successfully conducting local anti-terror measures against unlawful existence of Armenian troops in Azerbaijan’s Garabagh region. My country is actively engaged with rebuilding its formerly occupied territories and reviving peaceful life over there including the return of all IDPs. Azerbaijan continues to advance its peace agenda to facilitate sustainable peace and regional cooperation in the South Caucasus. 

I would like to conclude my message by wishing the entire team and all readers of Diplomacy Journal a happy, peaceful and prosperous New Year!