As reported previously, the Azerbaijani delegation led by Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova are in Russian Federation on an official visit currently.

On 22 September, Mrs Gafarova had a meeting with Chair of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Valentina Matviyenko who welcomed Mrs Gafarova and the visiting delegation and said that she was glad to see Azerbaijani MPs in Russia.

This is Mrs Gafarova’s first visit to Russia as the Chair of the Milli Majlis and the Russian side appreciate it highly, Mrs Matviyenko noted.

‘It is a token of the very fine intention to continue the already-established very close relations between the Parliament of Russia and the Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan as much as it is a token of respect. Azerbaijan is and will remain a strategic partner to us. Doubtless, the interparliamentary co-operation plays a dramatic role in constructing interstate relations. We have been looking forward to Your visit and we set due value on it. I believe that our meeting is a very good opportunity ‘to sync watches’ on the parliamentary dialogue’s agenda and the agenda of the bilateral relations, to discuss what international problems worry us… an excellent chance to exchange opinions and plans… of the continued progress of the interparliamentary co-operation,’ Mrs Matviyenko was saying.

She praised the steps that Azerbaijan had taken against the 21st century’s plague, COVID-19, and thanked the Azerbaijani side for its help to Russia in this regard.

Bringing up the speech of Mrs Gafarova due at the sitting of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly set for tomorrow, Mrs Matviyenko said, ‘One may say that the first sitting of tomorrow’s session will be Yours.’

Mrs Gafarova thanked Mrs Matviyenko for her hospitality and for the invitation on which the Azerbaijan delegation are in Russia. She expressed a confidence that this visit and the discussions that will be held during it will make a contribution of their own to the progress of the interparliamentary relations between the two countries. That the comprehensive bilateral interaction has graduated to the extent of strategic partnership is in a considerable way thanks to the political dialogue between the state leaders Ilham Aliyev and Vladimir Putin and the numerous visits they have exchanged, according to Mrs Gafarova.

She proceeded to talk about the humanitarian and cultural ties connecting the two countries and emphasised the role – the role that is in no way inferior to that of the existing economic and political relations. The massive contribution to the advancing humanitarian and cultural bonds by Azerbaijan’s First Vice President Mrs Mehriban Aliyeva was mentioned as was the fact that President Vladimir Putin decorated Mrs Aliyeva with the ‘Friendship’ Order for the achievements in furthering those areas in particular in November 2019. Mr Putin commented while awarding the decoration, ‘Mrs Mehriban Aliyeva is Russia’s friend indeed.’   

Clearly, both parliaments are playing a serious part in the unfolding bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Russia, too. Both the Milli Majlis and the Federal Assembly have the dedicated friendship groups in action. Hopefully, Mrs Gafarova remarked, Russia and Azerbaijan will continue their co-operation in various interparliamentary associations with the end of the pandemic.

The speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament underlined the usefulness of the experience exchange amongst the election monitoring missions posted to Azerbaijan and Russia as need be, on the bipartite basis as well as under the auspices of the international organisations and firstly so of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly. As for the permanent join commission of the Milli Majlis and the Federal Assembly, its work will prove an irreplaceable input in the interaction’s progress, in the opinion of Mrs Gafarova who mentioned a propos that she counted on the jubilee 15th meeting of the Interparliamentary Commission to take place soon enough.

She then spoke of the great importance attached to the contacts with the subjects of the Russian Federation and recalled in this connection the close connections with the People’s Assembly of the Dagestan Republic and the Legislative Assembly of St Petersburg.

The problem of Highland Garabagh was brought up in the course of the conversation as well, with Mrs Gafarova describing the conflict as painful not only to Azerbaijan but to the region as a whole, and one, on top of that, which has remained unresolved for longer than thirty years. The occupation of 20 per cent of the territory of Azerbaijan and the presence of one million refugees amount to a grave problem. The four resolutions of the UN Security Council regarding the conflict and its settlement, the relevant documents of the NATO, the PACE and the OSCE – they remain on paper so far while Armenia is disregarding those international organisations and, alas, the international community is not reacting to the course of action taken by Armenia adequately, either. Though the ceasefire treaty was signed in Bishkek in 1994, the fire has virtually never been ceased to date – and to date it has been killing civilians, old people and children.

‘The latest and most dangerous Armenian provocation was made on 12 July and its danger is in that it took place not in Garabagh but on the span of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border in the Azerbaijani province of Tovuz. Servicemen and civilians were killed; there was destruction, too. Such provocations continue now as well and, according to the Ministry of Defence information, another Azerbaijani serviceman was killed yesterday. The way the course of things unfolds indicates that Armenia is preparing for a big war. We count on Russia as a Co-Chair of the Minsk Group to spare no effort to solve the problem,’ said Chair of the Milli Majlis.

Then, Mrs Gafarova invited her colleague to pay an official visit to Azerbaijan at her convenience, saying, ‘I am certain that the meeting today and, in general, our visit will help promote the friendly relations between Azerbaijan and Russia.’

There was also an exchange of opinions about the matters of interest to both sides during the conversation.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis