“I am very grateful. I wish to congratulate and express our gratitude to President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and the organizers for very excellent preparations for the COP29. I think we owe that to the people of Azerbaijan, the government, and the President himself,” Henry S. Bensurto Jr, Ambassador of the Republic of the Philippines to Azerbaijan, told AZERTAC.
“So I look forward to the remaining days of COP29. I am very positive in terms of how this meeting is going to end up under the leadership of Azerbaijan. So thank you very much to the President, to the people of Azerbaijan for their generosity, their kindness, and for all the preparations that are so excellent,” the ambassador said.
Recalling that President Ilham Aliyev declared 2024 as the “Green World Solidarity Year” in Azerbaijan, the Philippine ambassador noted: “I think the fact that we are holding COP29 here speaks so much about your president. And the fact that we are holding today COP29 in the very heart of Azerbaijan, the city of Baku, speaks a lot about the commitment, the dedication of the President to push through the global agenda, which is very much aligned with what Azerbaijan is doing in terms of its national policy.”
Ambassador Henry S. Bensurto also highlighted the challenges facing his country. “As we know, we are facing so many challenges in terms of climate change and the Philippines is not immune from that. And archipelago surrounded by waters, and we are very much threatened in terms of the rise in water level, and we have seen this in terms of devastation generated by typhoons. We receive something like 20 or so typhoons every year, and every year the strength of these typhoons are so devastating affecting our population. And this is not isolated to the Philippines, but this is a challenge that faces the entire community. It is a fight of humanity,” he mentioned.
“And it is our hope that COP29 will not just be words and commitments and pledges, but something where countries, where people of all the world will not only unite among themselves to stand up to the challenges of climate change. And so we are hopeful. We would like to work with all countries, with all peoples so that we can generate a global response to a global challenge,” the ambassador emphasized.
