Deputy Chair of the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan, head of the parliamentary Youth and Sports Committee Adil Aliyev is visiting in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan where he has had a meeting with Speaker of the Pakistani National Assembly Raja Pervaiz Ashraf.

The conversation was about the growth of the bilateral relations and the necessity of making our friendly ties yet stronger.

Mr Adil Aliyev mentioned the fact that Pakistan was amongst the first state to recognise the independence of Azerbaijan and that our bilateral relations had turned 30 years in 2022. The two nations have firm friendly ties between them. Reciprocal visits of heads of state and of parliament as well as the documents inked to date serve the cause of deepening the relations.

The Vice Speaker also told about the situation in our region following the Patriotic War. Armenia is evading a peace treaty signing though the war ended three years back; so, the final document that is based on five well-known principles and that Azerbaijan proposed has not been signed yet. The mines that Armenia planted in the formerly-occupied Azerbaijani territories are another problem that Azerbaijan has to deal with. The number of our citizens who have fallen prey to those mines exceeds 300 now; the overwhelming majority of them are civilians. Most of the mines found so far were manufactured in Armenia in 2021, as Adil Aliyev pointed out.

The victory of 2020 won under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan was followed up with the large-sweep restoration of the freed lands – and this work continues. Two international airports have been opened so far; the third one is under construction right now. Other infrastructure projects are also progressing rapidly. According to Mr. Aliyev, $4 bn of the state budget money was spent on reviving the liberated lands during 2020-2022 and $1.7 bn was allocated for the same purpose this year. Mr Aliyev also mentioned such large-scale projects as Smart City and Smart Village afoot in those territories, adding that the citizens of Azerbaijan, once displaced, were beginning to return to their native lands many years after.

Mr Aliyev and Mr Ashraf also exchanged opinions about stepping up the Azerbaijani-Pakistani inter-parliamentary co-operation.

The Press and Public Relations Department  

The Milli Majlis