Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova met with Chairman of the Senate of the Egyptian Parliament Abdel Wahab Abdel Razeq on 6 February during her current official visit to the Arab Republic of Egypt.

It was a tete-a-tete first; it revolved around the progress of the bilateral inter-state and inter-legislature connexions.

Chair of the Senate greeted Chair of the Milli Majlis cordially and spoke of the gratifying nature of the current state of relations on both planes. He recalled the visit of President Abdel Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil el-Sisi to Azerbaijan in January this year and underscored the tremendous contribution that the state heads are making to the progress of the bilateral relations. Mr Razeq also stressed the importance of the documents signed during that visit.

Abdel Wahab Abdel Razeq also mentioned his own attendance of the first conference of the Parliamentary Network of the Non-Aligned Movement in Baku in June last year and shared the fine impression he had had from it.

Two of the abroad visits paid since he had been elected to helm the Egyptian Senate had been to Azerbaijan, Mr Razeq remarked before underlining the huge importance that the Senate attaches to bilateral co-operation with the Milli Majlis and to the interaction under the aegis of the Non-Aligned Movement’s Parliamentary Network alike. A propos, he voiced the readiness to help foster both kinds of linkage. Mr Razeq spoke of the fruitful input of the Milli Majlis to the work of the Network and the high organisational standards set by the Baku Conference as well as, especially, the part that the NAM plays in the furtherance of the Egyptian-Azerbaijani relations.

There is efficient co-operation going between the two legislatures today; and it is feasible to deepen it further.

The Egyptian side had long been looking forward to the arrival of the speaker of the Azerbaijani parliament. Mr Razeq feels confident that this visit is certain to contribute in its own way to the forward motion of the connexions between our legislative assemblies.

Speaker of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova thanked Chairman of the Senate for the generous hospitality given the Azerbaijani parliamentary delegation and said that this visit of hers – the first official one to Egypt as the head of the Azerbaijani legislature – would doubtless contribute to the on-going intensification of our relations across the board. The Azerbaijani-Egyptian diplomatic relations turned thirty years in 2022; they had been growing and expanding all those years, in many respects, thanks to reciprocal visits of the leaders of the two states as well as their meetings and, especially notably, the documents they have signed. President Aliyev of Azerbaijan had visited Egypt in 2007 whilst President As-Sisi of Egypt was in Azerbaijan only a few days back; these trips greatly contribute to the progress of our ties, Mrs Gafarova was saying.

The parliaments of the two countries, too, hold a key position as drivers of growth in the two-way relations, in which relation the work done by the inter-parliamentary friendship groups deserves a special mention, according to Sahiba Gafarova. Remarkably, the Azerbaijani and Egyptian legislative assemblies also interact – and always support each other – in international parliamentary organisations as well.

Mrs Gafarova told Mr Razeq of the institution of the Non-Aligned Movement Parliamentary Network, suggested by President Ilham Aliyev as the NAM Chair in order to promote the NAM’s parliamentary dimension. Mr Razeq was also told about the first NAM PN conference held in Baku, the current endeavours to ensure organisational and institutional sustenance of the Network and what tasks wait to be addressed yet. Mrs Gafarova recalled fondly the participation in the Baku Conference of the new entity of a large delegation that Chair of the Egyptian Senate had led.

The conversation moved on to our splendid victory in the 44 days’ Patriotic War that culminated in Azerbaijan’s single-handed enforcement in 2020 of the resolutions of the UN Security Council and of other international entities that demanded de-occupation of our lands and had sadly remained but on paper long since. Sometimes, the UN Security Council’s resolutions are carried out instantaneously but those concerning the liberation of the Azerbaijani lands had to take almost thirty years to act upon. And it is all about the double standards and selective approaches that currently hold sway in the system of international relations.

Sahiba Gafarova went further to talk about the new situation that the restored wholeness of our national territory had created in our region, the current restoration and revival of the Azerbaijani provinces rid of the invaders and the already-started repatriation of the former internally displaced people. It was verily Azerbaijan that initiated a normalisation with Armenia, having invited the latter to sign a peace treaty that would be based on international law principles. Unfortunately, Armenia remains disruptive to the conversations. Azerbaijan wants peace and seeks permanent peace and security in the region; Azerbaijan respects the sovereignty of any state and insists on being treated likewise, according to Mrs Gafarova who proceeded to inform Mr Razeq of the Armenian provocations intended to derail the peace process and on Armenia, again, planting mines in Azerbaijani territories.

Our state’s initiatives regarding peace and security and bringing about broader co-operation world-wide were also mentioned as the conversation went on. The leader of the Milli Majlis remarked that Azerbaijan was contributing of her very own to the international anti-terrorism as well. Whilst on the subject, she brought up the terrorist attack against the embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the Islamic Republic of Iran, committed on 27 January and having resulted in one embassial employee killed and two others wounded. The Azerbaijani side classifies this as an act of terrorism and no other; Iran has been told so explicitly. We want a fair investigation and a well-deserved punishment for the culprits, Mrs Gafarova emphasised.

Mrs Gafarova and Mr Razeq then exchanged views upon several other matters of shared interest.

The meeting was over then; the leaders of the Milli Majlis the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Senate of the Arab Republic of Iran capped it by signing a memorandum of understanding about co-operation.

Afterwards, Sahiba Gafarova was shown round the senatorial premises and made a heartfelt entry in the memory book of the Upper House of the Parliament of Egypt.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis