President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has been an initiator of digital diplomacy in global arena in response to the obstacles created by the pandemic.

As we all know, there is no single country not affecting by the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) embracing the world. World states, even developed countries have difficulties in fighting against this virus. The pandemic has paralyzed economies of almost all countries. Countries have closed their borders, neighbouring states, close organizations have different points of view on this matter. Each of them solves its problems separately. Under existing conditions each country tries to protect its citizens relying on their own domestic resources. The head of the state Mr. President Ilham Aliyev signed an order on March 19 in order to minimize negative effects of the pandemic on the economy of Azerbaijan, business entities and successful steps have been taken in this regard. As a result of decisions made in a short period of time and in a timely manner, it could be possible to prevent potential losses in many fields before deepening of the crisis. During the pandemic, the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies has expanded its activity further in the digital platform. Measures on expanding activities in the digital platform are regularly continued. Accorting to the instruction of Mr. President Ilham Aliyev all meetings have been held virtually in order to protect health of people. Summits internationally held by the head of the state via video-conference are especially important in this regard. An event held virtually by the President Ilham Aliyev at the UN level was an innovation. The President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mr. Ilham Aliyev expressed his preparedness for providing technical support to the UN as an initiator of digital diplomacy in the global arena in response to the barriers created by the pandemic. Experience in holding high level virtual events has already been formed. So, meetings of authoritative institutions such as Group of Seven and Group of Twenty were held in this format. In other words, technical opportunities exist, there must be only political desire and will. Now all states are required to cooperate in the spirit of flexibility and compromise. Of course, main responsibility is of the members of the Security Council here. We hope that as a result of the initiative of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mr. Ilham Aliyev, finally the UN will be able to restore its official activities and conduct discussions of the significant global issue such as the fight against the pandemic. We believe that important decisions that can save humanity from this pandemic shall be made as a result of such discussions.