Azerbaijani parliament urges national authorities to suspend economic relations with France, stop cooperation with TotalEnergies

BAKU. Jan 18 (Interfax) - The Azerbaijani Parliament Committee on International and Inter-Parliamentary Relations has adopted a statement in response to the anti-Azerbaijani resolution passed by the French Senate on January 17, 2024, and urged the Azerbaijani government to fully suspend economic relations with Paris, among taking other steps.

The committee asked the Azerbaijani government in the statement available to Interfax to impose sanctions on France, freeze assets of French officials in Azerbaijan, fully suspend economic relations with France, oust all French companies, including TotalEnergies , from Azerbaijan, bar French companies from any projects initiated by Baku, and task the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry with taking steps towards the recognition of independence of Kanaky, Maohi Nui and Corsica.

The committee issued the statement "due to the biased, one-sided and unfounded resolution adopted by the French Senate on January 17, 2024, at the initiative of leaders of the Armenian lobby operating in that country and the French officials and politicians under their influence."

"In recent years, the French political establishment, including the Senate and the National Assembly, acting on the direct orders from the Elysee Palace, intensified their openly racist, Azerbaijan- and Islam-phobic activities and continued to take unjust steps against the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan, demonstrating obvious disrespect for the norms and principles of international law," the statement said.

"The anti-Azerbaijani policy of the French government, including the anti-Azerbaijani resolutions adopted by both chambers of the French parliament, has led to the all-time lowest level of bilateral relations, which can actually be called suspended," it said.

The French Senate adopted a resolution on Wednesday to urge Paris to impose sanctions on Azerbaijan over the local anti-terrorist operation held in the Karabakh region on September 19-20, 2023.