Update 16:14 - President Coleiro-Preca meets with Turkish and Azeri Presidents

Newspapers and social media feeds are awash with stories of inequality, but this hasn’t led people to care any further about other people’s problems, President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca said this afternoon.

The “general state of indifference….to the struggles of the vulnerable” was all the more alarming when compared to the abundance of information available, she noted.

“We must speak a message of peace that challenges the misinformation and prejudice threatening our world,” President Coleiro-Preca said. “Our counter-narratives must dissuade violence, while promoting practical effective and long-term solutions.”

President Coleiro-Preca was speaking at a Global Forum organised by the UN Alliance of Civilisations being held in Baku, Azerbaijan.

She followed her speech with bilateral meetings with her Turkish counterpart Recep Erdogan and Azeri president Ilham Aliyev. 

While talks with Mr Erdogan centred on strengthening cooperation between Malta and Turkey, President Coleiro-Preca and Mr Aliyev discussed the possibility of Malta helping Azerbaijan strengthen its ties with the EU, a statement issued by the President's office said. 

President Coleiro-Preca with Turkish president Recep Erdogan.President Coleiro-Preca with Turkish president Recep Erdogan.


The Alliance of Civilisations was formed in 2006 to galvanize international action against extremism. It places particular emphasis on defusing tensions between the Western and Islamic worlds.

The President argued that the “atmosphere of fear” bred by extremism and fear
required nations to strive for “resilient” societies which fostered a “culture of peace”.

“It is only by striving towards a culture of peace…that we can truly hope to effect a sustainable and positive change for ourselves and our children,” the President said.

She called on other nations to recognize their shared value and to keep in mind the pain felt by those excluded from broader society. “We cannot afford to be small minded in our endeavours, prioritising the short-term gratification of the few over the sustainable wellbeing of the many,” she told delegates.

The President posed a rhetorical question. “Are the peoples of the world being given the opportunity to make a free and real choice for peace? Or are structural and systematic oppressions, embedded within the fabric of our lives, holding us back?”

Overcoming global challenges to peace would require all nations to defend the principles of social inclusion, the President said. That meant encouraging youth to take part in society and “demanding the equal participation of women” in society.

“Just as women are often at most risk of coercive and violent paradigms, women can also become a motivating force in the cessation of violence and the move towards inclusive peace,” the President said.

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