Speaker Bio

Elchin Amirbayov is the Representative of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan on Special Assignments since 2023. In this capacity, he is part of the President’s foreign policy team involved in recent years in particular in peace negotiations and normalization process between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Prior to this role, he served as Assistant to the First Vice-President of Azerbaijan from 2017 to 2023 in charge of foreign policy matters. A career diplomat, Mr. Amirbayov has held a wide range of positions within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan since 1991. His early assignments included postings at the Mission of Azerbaijan to NATO in Brussels (2001–2003) and the Permanent Mission of Azerbaijan to the United Nations in New York (2003–2004). From 2004 to 2010, he served as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Azerbaijan to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva, concurrently, holding the position of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Swiss Confederation. During his tenure in Geneva, he served as Vice-President and Rapporteur of the United Nations Human Rights Council (2008–2009). He also chaired the Group of Ambassadors of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation at the UN Office in Geneva (2007) and led the Group of Ambassadors of the Eastern European Regional Group in 2008. Mr. Amirbayov was the first Ambassador of Azerbaijan accredited to the Holy See, serving in that capacity from 2005 to 2017. He also served concurrently as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Principality of Liechtenstein (2006–2010). Between 2010 and 2017, he served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Azerbaijan to France, with concurrent accreditation to the Principality of Monaco. Mr. Amirbayov graduated with honors from the Azerbaijan State Institute of Foreign Languages in 1992. He pursued postgraduate studies in diplomacy at the International Institute of Public Administration in Paris in 1993. In 2000, he completed a specialized course on international and national security at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He also attended courses at the NATO School in Oberammergau and the NATO Defense College in Rome. He is fluent in English, French, Russian, and Turkish.