Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova wished the new ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany in the Republic of Azerbaijan Ralf Horlemann success in his work and congratulated him on the start of the diplomatic mission in our country as the two met.

Azerbaijan and Germany are friendly states and partners whose bilateral relations flourish politically and economically as much as they do in trade, tourism and other areas; there are fine opportunities to broaden the interaction, besides, it was said in the course of the conversation. The Azerbaijani-German diplomatic relations turned thirty years in 2022; the links had been progressing all that time, in many respects thanks to top-notch reciprocal visits and meetings. Mrs Gafarova proceeded to underscore the fruitful Azerbaijani-German collaboration – bilateral as well as under the auspices of the European Union.

The significance of our legislatures in furthering the bilateral co-operation forward, the importance of two-way trips and a productive dialogue; the work done by the friendship groups by way of contributing to the growth of inter-legislature linkage and those groups bridging the two parliaments through their regular contacts, liaison and encounters were all talked about as well as the meeting continued.

Speaker Gafarova made Mr Horlemann aware of the Azerbaijani values of tolerance and multiculturalism. She mentioned the 200^th anniversary of the German settlements in the South Caucasus in 2017 and stressed our state-level care of the German settlers’ heritage – the care that once again makes crystal clear Azerbaijan’s ambience of tolerance and the level of multiculturalism and the values harboured by our country.

The victory of Azerbaijan in the Patriotic War, our national territory made whole again, the current restoration and revival of the lands wrested from occupation, Azerbaijan’s efforts to promote peace and Armenia’s provocations harming the peace process were talked about further on and in great detail, too. Sahiba Gafarova recalled that peace arrangements had been discussed at the meeting of President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan with the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan in Munich on 18 February. The stance that our state has taken relies on international law and historical justice, stressed the leader of the Azerbaijani parliament.

Going further, the German ambassador was informed of the current situation around the Lachin Road, with Sahiba Gafarova emphasising that Azerbaijan is providing the security of two-way passenger and cargo transportation whereas Armenia has been ill-using that road to carry mines, ammunition and military personnel as well as to expatriate the natural resources pillaged in our country. The Armenian side’s allegations of Azerbaijan having blocked the Lachin Road as well as blockaded the Armenians resident in the Azerbaijani provinces and a fictitious humanitarian crisis are, well, just so – fictitious. Armenia is merely resorting to such tricks in an attempt to confuse the international community, Ms Gafarova pointed out.

The meeting continued; Mrs Gafarova and Mr Horlemann exchanged views on several topics of shared interest.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis