Im Vorfeld der COP29 sammelte Aserbaidschan Verbündete im britischen Oberhaus, die seine Führung lobten

This year’s host country for the COP climate conference, an authoritarian petrostate, has long courted members of Britain’s unelected legislative assembly. Ahead of the November talks, Azerbaijan intensified its lobbying efforts.

In March 2022, David Evans, Baron of Watford, stood before British and Azerbaijani dignitaries in a red-carpeted banquet room inside the House of Lords in London. He began to recite a poem he had written himself.

“This is a partnership that’s built to last/Throwing off the restraints of your Soviet past,” read one line of the verse, celebrating 30 years of diplomatic relations between the U.K. and Azerbaijan following the fall of the Soviet Union.

Evans’ poem praised the Azerbaijani state oil company’s contracts with British multinational BP and even celebrated Azerbaijan’s victory over Armenia in a six-week war in 2020. He rhymed the territory at the heart of the longstanding conflict — Nagorno-Karabakh — with “thank God we got it back!”