Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova has had a meeting with Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation in the course of her current official visit to the RF.

First, Mrs Gafarova and Mr Volodin spoke privately about the bilateral inter-state and inter-parliamentary relations.

The delegations of the two sides joined the conversation eventually.

Chairman of the State Duma greeted our deputation, pointed out the significance of their coming to Russia, referred to the good neighbourhood and mutual respect pervading the relations between our countries and said that the joint agenda had enough many items to attend to. The Russian-Azerbaijani relations turned thirty years in 2023; our relations are progressing, including thanks to the impulse generated by the leaders of the two states. The decisions made at the parliamentary and presidential strata provide for the maintenance of an appropriate legislative basis, Mr Volodin continued.

He stressed the need to broaden the inter-legislature relations further and said that co-operation amongst the two sides’ parliamentary committees mattered in that sense; meaning, diversely-specialised committees afforded the opportunities waiting to be exploited. The current state of interaction between the Milli Majlis, on the one hand, and the State Duma and the Federation Council, on the other, is pleasing; the memorandum of understanding regarding co-operation that is to be signed between the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the State Duma of the Russian Federation Federal Assembly today will mark a transition of our interaction to a new level, in the opinion of Vyacheslav Volodin.

The head of the State Duma did not omit to underscore the importance of implementing the decisions passed by the leaders of Azerbaijan, Russia and Armenia, either.

Sahiba Gafarova thanked for the hospitality afforded the delegacy of the Milli Majlis, saying then that that was her first visit to the Russian Federation in the capacity of head of the Azerbaijani legislature and that she hoped the current visit was going to promote a continued strengthening and broadening of our inter-parliamentary relations.

The Azerbaijani-Russian connexions rest on good neighbourliness and mutual understanding, to Mrs Gafarova said, also referring to the thirtieth anniversary of the diplomatic relations last year and mentioning the signing during the official visit of President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan to the Russian Federation in February last year of the Declaration of Allied Interaction between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation. The bilateral ties are based on the powerful foundation that the leaders of our states laid, according to Mrs Gafarova.

The bilateral relations cover many areas. Last year saw successful economic indicators, including in terms of mutual investments. The humanitarian co-operation, in turn, is another very significant area, Sahiba Gafarova continued, stressing in this regard the role played by First Vice-President of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva and the Heydar Aliyev Foundation she helms. There was an event honouring the tenth anniversary of the Azerbaijani-Russian Inter-Regional Forum in Moscow in November 2019; it went with the participation of First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva. Besides, the Days of the Azerbaijani Culture went in Moscow from 21 February till 1 March 2022 with the backing provided by the Fund and on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the establishment of our diplomatic relations. Such events too contribute to the progress of our relations in a grand way, according to Sahiba Gafarova.

The inter-parliamentary connexions are one of the benevolent factors to the Azerbaijani-Russian relations, be it bilateral or multilateral ones. Mrs Gafarova recalled the trip of the State Duma Chairman to our country in 2022 and that arrival’s input in our links. She also underlined the significance of the co-operation and experience exchanges amongst the parliamentary committees of Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation.

Azerbaijan’s liberation of her own lands in 2020 from the Armenian occupation that had taken close to thirty years was mentioned as well as the meeting drew on. Azerbaijan began restoring and rebuilding those territories on a large scale and at her own expense immediately after their liberation. The whole infrastructure destroyed previously is being rebuilt from scratch. New settlements and towns are being built in Garabagh and East Zangazur that are declared a green energy zone. In fact, the return of the erstwhile IDP to their homeland has begun, too. Saying all that, though, the Speaker of the Milli Majlis also brought up a few problems with mines posing one of them. Armenia had planted more than a million mines in our lands during the occupation and after the war the Armenian side has been abusing the Lachin Road to transport mines and ammunition and, as though that were not enough, also for illegal exportation of our natural resources. More than 280 Azerbaijani citizens have either been killed or wounded badly in mine explosions since the end of the war.

An advocate of peace and security in the region, Azerbaijan has offered Armenia to sign a peace pact on the basis of five principles of international law but Armenia is making provocations to hamper the peace process instead, Sahiba Gafarova went on.

She then emphasised that Armenia was trying to Armenia tries to mislead the international community with its allegations that Azerbaijan has blocked the Lachin Road, that Armenians living in Azerbaijani provinces are under blockade and that there is a humanitarian crisis. Meanwhile, transport vehicles including those of the peace-making contingent and of the International Committee of the Red Cross and, well, also Armenian ambulances shuttle back and forth by that road every day, which is enough to call the bluff of the Armenian side that is only resorting to manipulations trying for an international confusion.

Speaker Gafarova reiterated Armenia’s failure to honour its own portion of obligations under the Trilateral Statement.

The terrorist assault on the embassy of Azerbaijan in Iran that had killed one embassial employee and wounded two others was broached at the meeting as well, with Mrs Gafarova stressing that Azerbaijan demands an impartial investigation of this terrorist attack and the well-deserved prosecution of its perpetrators.

Other topics of shared interest were also talked over.

With the meeting over, a Memorandum of Understanding about co-operation was inked between the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.

The Press and Public Relations Department

The Milli Majlis