Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova has had a conversation with Chair of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of Russian Federation Valentina Matviyenko during Mrs Gafarova’s current work trip to the Kyrgyz Republic.

Their meeting saw an exchange of opinions about co-operation between Azerbaijan and Russian Federation in the bilateral and multilateral formats and about also other matters of shared interest. The two Heads of Legislature shared satisfaction with the progress of the economic, political and humanitarian inter-state relations. They also underscored the tremendous role of regular meetings and conversations of the Heads of State in the continuing expansion of the bilateral relations. The relevant importance of the encounter of the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Russia in Bishkek last month was duly brought up.

Valentina Matviyenko stressed the need to develop further the two-way economic and trading links as well as the connexions between their provinces before saying that the implementation of large infrastructural projects was under consideration right now.

Mrs Matviyenko also touched upon the legislatures’ roles in the advancement of the relationship between our countries.

Sahiba Gafarova thoroughly updated Valentina Matviyenko on the current situation in our region. Having delivered her lands from occupation in 2020, Azerbaijan invited Armenia to normalise the relations based on shared respect of sovereignty and territorial integrity, and to sign a peace treaty. Armenia, though, made every effort within its reach to evade the treaty’s signing. Moreover, Mrs Gafarova continued, Armenia ignored the obligations imposed on her under the Trilateral Statement, was far from honouring its other political and economic duties and, quite on the contrary, has resorted to military provocations and continued both the mining of Azerbaijani territories and the backing to the illegal regime that had been put together in our territories.

Azerbaijan responded to the provocations with the anti-terrorist measures of local nature that had lasted for less than 24 hours in September this year. Consequently, our sovereignty was restored. Those measures exclusively targeted the illegal armed groups and military infrastructure whereas there was no damage to civilian populace and civilian facilities, which the two UN missions that have visited the region have confirmed to satisfaction.

The Speaker of the Milli Majlis proceeded to say that Azerbaijan wanted permanent peace and security in our region, and that the signing of the already-mentioned peace treaty would lead up to stability and security in the South Caucasus. Unfortunately, rather than sign the treaty that Azerbaijan suggested, Armenia had started and wages on international sites a blackwashing campaign trying to mislead international community with its fabrications. Speaker Gafarova regretted that certain countries would have seen fit to join that campaign of lies, which is utterly unacceptable.

Going further, Mrs Gafarova presented her views on the current state of our inter-state relations and those between our legislative bodies, mentioning fondly her own official visits to Russian Federation as Head of the Milli Majlis and her participation this year in the events in Moscow on the occasion of the 100^th anniversary of the National Leader of the Azerbaijanis Heydar Aliyev. The homage paid to his memory is already an indicator of the high level of Azerbaijani-Russian relations, in the opinion of Mrs Gafarova.

Sahiba Gafarova also broached the inter-parliamentary connexions. She mentioned the special role of the two legislative assemblies in the progress of the bilateral relations in general. The friendship groups active in both the Milli Majlis and the Federal Assembly as well as the Permanent Bilateral Inter-Parliamentary Commission do the work worthy of every praise. As regards international events, they do provide for discussions about various subjects related to our co-operation.

There was also an exchange of opinions about other matters of shared interest as this conversation went on.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis