BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 12. An article by Humbat Musayev, First Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper “Khalg” and Honored Journalist of Azerbaijan, headlined “The Baku Agenda for Safe and Sustainable Cities: WUF13 as a New Platform for Azerbaijani-Chinese Cooperation”, dedicated to the 13th session of the World Urban Forum held in Azerbaijan, was published in Russian on the official websites of China’s Xinhua News Agency and the newspaper People’s Daily.
TurkicWorld reports, citing AZERTAC, that this reflects the high level of attention paid by authoritative Chinese media outlets to Azerbaijan’s role in the global urban development agenda, the international significance of WUF13 held in Baku, and the new substance of Azerbaijan-China cooperation.
The article assesses the holding of WUF13 in Baku as an important indicator of Azerbaijan’s international authority, its organizational capacity, and its contribution to the agenda of sustainable urban development. It especially emphasized that the forum placed the issue of building safe, sustainable, inclusive, and people-centered cities at the center of global discussion. In this context, the reconstruction and development work carried out by Azerbaijan in Garabagh and East Zangezur on the basis of the “smart city” and “smart village” concepts is presented as a practical example of the country’s modern approach to urbanization. The very fact that the forum was held for the first time in the Caucasus region makes it possible to present Azerbaijan’s geographical location not only as a bridge between East and West, but also as a space where global urban development ideas, models of sustainable development, and international cooperation initiatives intersect.
The author also highlights Azerbaijan-China relations, noting the historic role of National Leader Heydar Aliyev in laying the foundations of Azerbaijani-Chinese relations, the successful continuation of this policy by President Ilham Aliyev in accordance with the challenges of the new era, and the atmosphere of high trust that has been formed with President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping. Xi Jinping’s decision to send his special representative to WUF13, the meeting of China’s high-ranking representative with President Ilham Aliyev, as well as the presentation of the Shanghai Award within the framework of the forum, are assessed as indicators of the great importance that China attaches to the Baku Forum. At the same time, the Chinese experience is presented as an important practice that Azerbaijan can study from the perspective of smart cities, green urbanization, digital governance, sustainable transport, and urban-rural integration.
Overall, the article presents WUF13 as an expression of Azerbaijan’s active participation in the international urban development agenda, the strengthening of Baku’s role as a global platform for dialogue, and the potential for developing Azerbaijani-Chinese cooperation in new areas. The main message of the Baku Forum is that the cities of the future should not be built solely on technology and infrastructure, and that the success of cities should be measured not only by the scale of construction, but also by people’s safe living conditions, preparedness for climate risks, social equality, and the quality of the urban environment. Its main pillars are security, social justice, climate resilience, environmental responsibility, and human dignity. In addition, housing is no longer merely a matter of social provision, but one of the key foundations of a safe, inclusive, sustainable, and people-centered urban model.
It should be noted that Xinhua, as one of the most important news agencies of the People’s Republic of China, occupies a special place in the country’s official news and information space and is regarded as one of the leading platforms for conveying news about China to an international audience. The total number of followers of its social media accounts exceeds one billion. People’s Daily, as the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, enjoys special authority within China’s socio-political and ideological information system, while its multilingual online platform plays an important role in communicating China’s position and the international agenda to a broad readership. The newspaper’s websites, mobile applications, and social media channels have more than 940 million readers.
From this point of view, the publication of the article on both authoritative media resources shows that the Baku agenda of WUF13 has generated significant resonance in the international information space, and that communicating Azerbaijan’s achievements in this field to a broad international audience is of particular importance.
The text of the article is available at the following links:
https://russian.news.cn/20260610/5c470f8c1c494914b6aa38e7ff82c2d6/c.html
https://russian.people.com.cn/n3/2026/0611/c31520-20466295.html
