Local Insights: At the 13th Baku Global Forum, global participants look to China for new path of multilateralism and stability

Local Insights: At the 13th Baku Global Forum, global participants look to China for new path of multilateralism and stability

Hope Amid Disorder

Editor's Note:

In an era of profound global shifts and increasingly complex regional dynamics, a proper understanding of the world must be rooted in "grounded experience" and localized insights. Global Times English edition, in collaboration with the Academy of International and Regional Communication Studies, Communication University of China, is proud to launch "Local Insights," an English-language column dedicated to original, field-based observations.

We invite Chinese scholars and professionals who are studying, conducting exchanges, or working outside China, as well as international students and friends living and studying in China who are familiar with the social contexts of their home countries or third countries, to begin from first-hand field experience and engage with social, cultural, and contemporary issues beyond China. As the first article in the column, a Chinese think tank scholar shares her experience at the Baku Global Forum, highlighting the international community's longing for multilateralism and expectations for China's participation in global governance.

The 13th Baku Global Forum held in Baku, Azerbaijan, from March 11 to 14, 2026 Photo: Courtesy of Miao

Before I left for Baku, Azerbaijan, I was not sure what kind of conference I was heading into.

Having worked in Track II diplomacy through the Center for China and Globalization (CCG) for several years, I have attended many international forums. Usually, even before departure, one can sense the likely mood of a meeting: who will come, what the tone will be, and whether the gathering will produce anything meaningful. This time, however, everything felt different.

The 13th Baku Global Forum, held from March 11 to 14, under the theme "Bridging Divides in a Transforming World," was taking place at an unusually dangerous moment. The escalating conflict involving the US, Israel and Iran had pushed regional tensions to a new level. Baku, in the South Caucasus, lies close to several geopolitical fault lines. Russia-Ukraine conflict still casts its shadow across the wider region, while tensions surrounding Iran and the Middle East were intensifying. As the forum was approaching, the question was no longer simply whether it would matter, but whether people would even go.

Many around us were pessimistic. At one point, I was too. Under normal circumstances, a gathering of current and former presidents, prime ministers, ministers, senior United Nations officials and leading think tank figures would attract strong attendance. But these were not normal times. Just one week before the forum opened, on March 5 local time, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry strongly condemned drone attacks on its Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic launched from Iranian territory. War was no longer a distant headline. It had moved closer - geographically, psychologically and politically. That changed the meaning of the trip, and it changed the meaning of the forum itself.

Mabel Miao Lu at the Baku Global Forum Photo: Courtesy of Miao

Arrival: A half-war city, and a forum fuller than expected

When I arrived in Baku, what struck me first was not panic, but tension held just beneath the surface.

Airports often tell the emotional truth of a place better than conference halls do. In the pauses between security checks, in the extra vigilance of personnel and in the expressions of travelers trying to read the room, one senses how a city understands its own moment. Baku did not feel chaotic. It felt alert.

The city was functioning normally on the surface. Traffic moved. Delegations arrived. Hotels operated efficiently. Conference staff prepared badges, schedules and plenary logistics. Yet beneath all of that routine was an unmistakable awareness that the region was living through an exceptionally dangerous moment. That was when the phrase that stayed with me throughout the trip first took shape in my mind: Baku was a "half-war city." It was not a battlefield, but it was no longer fully insulated from war either.

What surprised me most was not the tension. It was the turnout.

Before arriving in Baku, many of us had quietly assumed attendance might be thin. Who would willingly travel to a region overshadowed by war, instability and the risk of escalation? Yet, when I walked into the forum, what I found was not hesitation but presence.

Held under the patronage of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, the forum drew an extraordinary concentration of political weight. Nearly 200 current and former political leaders, senior officials, diplomats, scholars and policy figures had gathered. Among them were President José Ramos-Horta of Timor-Leste, Željka Cvijanovi, member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Francisco Gamboa, vice president-elect of Costa Rica, along with former heads of state, heads of government, foreign ministers an…