Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova met with Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty (People’s Council) of the Milli Geňeş of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov on 7 December in the course of her official visit to that country. The two legislature leaders exchanged views upon the progress and promotion of the bilateral inter-parliamentary relations.

The meeting was continued with the attendance of both sides’ delegations then.

Mr Berdimuhamedov underlined the huge importance that Turkmenistan attaches to furthering the relations with the friendly and brotherly Azerbaijan, recalled the thirtieth anniversary of our diplomatic relations having come this year and said that our states had co-operated through all those years fruitfully and effectively in several areas including in the political, economic, cultural and humanitarian ones. The last years had seen the two-way trade and economic figures go up to generate fine opportunities to augment the interaction on various specialist vectors further.

Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan also co-operate upon many international platforms including the Non-Aligned Movement, according to the Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty who, a propos, stressed the significance of the emergence of the NAM’s Parliamentary Network at the suggestion of the Azerbaijani side. Turkmenistan has every intention to contribute actively to the work of the Network, which is already evident from that the Chair of the Mejlis of the Milli Geňeş had attended the PN’s first conference in Baku, Mr Berdimuhamedov said emphatically.

Parliamentary diplomacy is gaining momentum in the field of international relations and Turkmenistan considers it very important to keep on working to that end, according to Mr Berdimuhamedov who broached the subject of pushing the boundaries of the Turkmen-Azerbaijani inter-legislature connexions further and said that he trusted that the current visit, too, would make an input of its own in this regard.

Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova voiced her appreciation of the warm hospitality extended by her hosts before stressing that the current condition of Azerbaijan’s relations with the brotherly Turkmenistan and the mutually advantageous co-operation were pleasing. Such quite high standards were attained, amongst other considerations, by the roles that the leaders of the two states had played to that end, Mrs Gafarova pointed out. Our countries combine efforts and drive for success together in a few areas but, especially so, in the energy and transport sectors.

The highly efficient collaboration between our legislatures is one of the factors having a remarkably favourable effect on the bilateral and multilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. There are sound opportunities to promote this kind of co-operation, too, according to Sahiba Gafarova. Her current trip to Turkmenistan – the first ever official one in the capacity of Chair of the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan – is bound to contribute in its own way to the on-going strengthening and broadening of the ties amongst our countries and their legislative assemblies, Sahiba Gafarova was saying.

It was said then that Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan support each other in international organisations in general and inter-parliamentary institutions in particular. The leader of the Milli Majlis underscored the import of our interaction within the Parliamentary Network of the Non-Aligned Movement, established in Madrid in November 2021 upon the instance of the president of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. The Network’s first conference took place in Baku in June this year and the next one is due in Manama in March 2023. Then, Sahiba Gafarova told Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov about the run-up to the second conference and about also the steps taken by Azerbaijan to ensure the Network’s institutional growth.

Going further, Mrs Gafarova gave an account of the Patriotic War of 2020 having culminated in Azerbaijan’s victory, restoration of her territorial integrity and termination of three decades of Armenian occupation of her lands, and of the new situation established across our region following the settlement of the onetime conflict. Azerbaijan had started expansive work to restore her de-occupied lands building smart towns and villages and embarking upon infrastructural and transport projects there. The people who used to be displaced have begun to travel back to their homeland already. Azerbaijan is doing all she can to ensure lasting peace and stability in the region whereas Armenia adopted a seditious stance and continues acts detrimental to this process, according to Mrs Gafarova.

Incidentally, the head of our working group for inter-parliamentary connexions with Turkmenistan Fazail Agamali, the MPs Aziz Alakbarov, Jala Aliyeva, Shahin Ismaylov, Vahid Ahmadov, Jabi Guliyev and Elshan Musayev as well as other officials took part in the meeting.

The meeting was over. A memorandum of understanding and co-operation was then signed between the Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan and the Halk Maslahaty of the Milli Geňeş of Turkmenistan.

Chair of the Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan Sahiba Gafarova and Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty of the Milli Geňeş of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov attached their hands to the memorandum. It was commented that that document was going to make it possible to build on the relations between the legislative bodies of the two states.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis