The Leader of the Milli Majlis Working Group for the interparliamentary connections Azerbaijan-the Netherlands Eldar Guliyev had a meeting with the Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the Azerbaijan Republic Pauline Eizema on 18 March.

Welcoming the guest who has just embarked on her diplomatic mission in our country, Mr Guliyev wished her every success. He said that Azerbaijan had covered a thorny path to independence, democracy and parliamentarism and informed Mrs Eizema in great detail of the history of independence of our country. Azerbaijan found itself subjected to occupation and ethnic cleansing by Armenia having just regained independence at great sacrifice in 1991 – after seventy years of the Soviet captivity. That aggression was only cut short when the Great Leader Heydar Aliyev came to power; a front-line ceasefire treaty was secured in 1994.

Azerbaijan enforced the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council by freeing the lands that belong to it in full compliance with the international laws during the Patriotic War that lasted for 44 days, Mr Guliyev pointed out. And it was incomprehensible why the Parliament of the Netherlands would pass resolutions in support of Armenia, an occupier state, against such a background, he added.

Mrs Eizema responded by telling Mr Guliyev that the Netherlandish society were mainly in receipt of one-sided information about the Patriotic War while she as ambassador reports the processes unfolding in the region back to her government as they are and regularly, too. She emphasised that, unlike the States General, the Government of the Netherlands had taken a well-balanced stance regarding this issue.

The Netherlands intends to establish a closer kind of joint work with Azerbaijan on the political and economic planes, according to Mrs Eizema who proceeded to talk about economic co-operation in such areas as reclamation of the liberated lands of Azerbaijan, agrarian development, town-planning and the renewable energy industry.

There was also an exchange of opinions about the growth prospects of the economic, humanitarian and interparliamentary co-operation and other subjects of interest to both sides during the conversation.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis