Azernews.Az

The role of Azerbaijan in the international arena is growing, a Sweden-based think-tank's top executive visiting Baku told Trend news agency on Friday.

"Azerbaijan has been among the fast-growing economies. The country is at the crossroads of the East and West and North and South. So, it is a very good venue for such meetings," said Governing Board Chairman of Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Goran Lennmarker, who is attending the Baku International Humanitarian Forum.

According to Lennmarker, Baku is a completely different city than it was 10 years ago. "Human development now keeps pace with economic development, which is difficult," he said.

Lennmarker said conducting a humanitarian forum was an excellent idea. Also, in his opinion, dividing the forum into sections was useful as participants can debate and discuss various developments in more detail.

Baku International Humanitarian Forum is an authoritative scientific and political global platform to search answers for global challenges, faced by mankind in the 21st century, featuring a wide range of exchanges of opinions and discussions on the most important issues of humanitarian cooperation.

Co-founders of the forum are Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Russia's Vladimir Putin.

About 700 representatives from 70 countries, including Nobel Prize winners, 15 former presidents, heads of numerous countries' governments, ministers, well-known educators, men of science and culture are in attendance.

The first Baku International Humanitarian Forum under the slogan "21st century: hopes and challenges" took place in October 2011.