May 20, while President Ilham Aliyev was due to attend the Eastern Partnership Summit in Riga, his advisor Ali Hasanov said due to the busy schedule ahead of the European Games the country is hosting in some weeks, President Aliyev decided not to do attend.
However, according to APA, President Aliyev decided to boycott the summit as a result of "recent tendentious campaigns against Azerbaijan and extensive anti- Azerbaijan activities of some NGOs run from various centers in Europe".
The summit will be attended by Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministery Elmar Mammadyarov and the Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration, Novruz Mammadov.
The Eastern Partnership consists of the post- Soviet states: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, Russia, Belarus and the European Union. The Parternship was inaugurated in Prague on May 7, 2009.