Baku: 'I would like to express my sincere gratitude to President Ilham Aliyev and the Government of Azerbaijan, as well as to the Nizami Ganjavi International Center, for their warm hospitality,' said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), at the opening ceremony of the 13th Global Baku Forum.

According to Azerbaijan State News Agency, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the COVID-19 pandemic as an invisible enemy, highlighting its devastating impact. He emphasized that the coronavirus claimed nearly 20 million lives-more than any war in living memory-and inflicted losses exceeding 10 trillion US dollars on the global economy.

The WHO chief further underscored the importance of unity in addressing global health challenges. 'In our fragmented world, health is one of the areas where countries must come together-regardless of ideology or divisions-to seek collective solutions to shared threats,' he stressed.