Speaker of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova had a meeting on 8 December with the visiting delegation led by Secretary General of the Council of Europe Marija Pejčinović Burić.

There was an exchange of views on the on-going co-operation between Azerbaijan and the Council of Europe (CE). The Speaker of the Milli Majlis mentioned the work done and the joint programmes implemented within the framework of Azerbaijan's co-operation with the Council of Europe, and described the new Action Plan for 2022-2025 as an important tool to deepen the ties with. Sahiba Gafarova also referred to the active participation of the Azerbaijani parliamentary delegation in the work of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

As Marija Pejčinović Burić emphasised, Azerbaijan is a valuable member of the Council of Europe. She also mentioned our country’s having acceded to a number of important conventions, adding that the parliament played an important role in this matter.

Sahiba Gafarova informed Marija Pejčinović Burić in detail of the processes taking place in the region. She spoke about the work done to restore and revive the liberated territories, as well as Azerbaijan's initiatives to normalise relations with Armenia and sign a peace treaty. She also spoke about the causes, nature and consequences of the local anti-terrorist measures carried out in the Garabagh Region in September this year. It was said that those measures had been implemented in accordance with international law, that no violence against civilians had been recorded and that Azerbaijan had restored her sovereignty.

As the Speaker of the Milli Majlis pointed out, there are no more obstacles today to the signing of the peace treaty between Azerbaijan and Armenia. In this sense, the joint statement adopted by the Administration of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Office of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia is an important step towards the promotion of the mutual peace agenda. An essential aspect of the statement was that both countries had agreed to continue the negotiations about undertaking additional trust-building measures in the near future, and called on the international community to support such efforts.

The capability of the Council of Europe to act as a platform contributing to the trust-building between Azerbaijan and Armenia was brought up in this this context. The Speaker of the Milli Majlis said it was necessary to prevent actions that distort the existing realities, undermine the normalisation process between the two countries and harm the prospects of signing a peace agreement soon.

Among the officials participating in the meeting at which other matters of shared concern were discussed, too, were Chairman of the Milli Majlis Committee of International and Inter-Parliamentary Relations, Head of our delegation to the PACE Samad Seyidov, Azerbaijan’s Permanent Envoy to the PACE Ambassador Fakhraddin Ismayilov and Head of the CE Office in Baku Petr Sich.

The Press and Public Relations Department

The Milli Majlis