Speaker of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova had a meeting on 4 March with the delegation led by Chairman of the National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria Rosen Dimitrov Zhelyazkov who are in our country on an official visit.

Greeting the guest cordially, the Speaker of the Milli Majlis congratulated him and the delegation members on the National Holiday celebrated in Bulgaria yesterday. She said also that this was Rosen Dimitrov Zhelyazkov’s first ever visit to Azerbaijan and that she trusted that it was going to contribute to a continued strengthening and broadening of the ties between our countries and their legislatures.

Azerbaijan and Bulgaria are friendly countries and strategic partners, Mrs Gafarova said, adding that the Joint Declaration on Strategic Partnership signed in 2015 had brought our relations to a new level qualitatively.

The importance of the official and working visits of President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mr Ilham Aliyev to Bulgaria, as well as of the visit of Bulgarian President Rumen Radev to our country was underlined during the conversation.  At the same time, the Speaker of the Milli Majlis underlined the exceptional role of reciprocal visits and meetings at the highest and high level in the development of bilateral relations. She emphasised the special significance of the meeting of the President of Azerbaijan with Rumen Radev in Serbia last December from this viewpoint.

Further, the key place that our co-operation in the energy sector occupies in the development of the interstate relations was emphasised. The importance of co-operation in economy, energy, scientific, educational, cultural and humanitarian spheres was also mentioned duly. It was said then that the consistent high-level political contacts laid a foundation for the promotion and development of the linkage in other fields, too. The significance of the Black Sea and Trans-Caspian transport corridors and of collaboration in those was underscored as well.

Speaker Sahiba Gafarova recalled with pleasure her last year’s official visit to the Republic of Bulgaria before she highlighted our legislative assemblies’ positive role in the progress of the relations between the two countries. She said that the reciprocal visits and meetings of the Heads of Parliament and between the Friendship Groups give grounds to speak of the existence of fine co-operation between our parliaments today. The need to continue the co-operation amongst the relevant committees of the two parliaments was also pointed out.

As she spoke of the importance of taking further the co-operation of our legislatures in inter-parliamentary organisations, the Speaker of the Milli Majlis remarked with regret that a number of parliamentary institutions demonstrated double standards towards Azerbaijan. The decision of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe not to ratify the mandate of the Azerbaijani Delegation is nothing else but a manifestation of the said double standards, according to Sahiba Gafarova.

Informing the guests of the current situation in the region, the Speaker of the Milli Majlis said that Armenia’s political and military provocations, Armenia’s evasion of its assumed obligations over the 3 years past and the tenacious backing given to the illegal separatist regime created in our territories, all in spite of Azerbaijan’s peace promotion initiatives that followed the end of the 44 days’ Patriotic War in 2020, had brought about the anti-terrorist measures of September last year on Azerbaijan’s part. As Mrs Gafarova said, those measures were wholly in line with international legal standards and had had Azerbaijan restore her sovereignty.

The guest was told that Azerbaijan had repeatedly stated the absence of any obstacle to signing a peace treaty and that Azerbaijan continues her efforts to achieve a favourable outcome. Sahiba Gafarova recalled the meeting of the President of Azerbaijan and Armenian PM, moderated by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, in Munich last month as well as the peace treaty negotiations between the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan and Armenia in the German capital that had followed.

Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria Rosen Dimitrov Zhelyazkov thanked for the official invitation and the congratulations on the National Holiday in Bulgaria. He, in turn, congratulated the Azerbaijani side on the successful conclusion of the extraordinary presidential election in Azerbaijan and Mr Ilham Aliyev’s election as President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Having mentioned that a Bulgarian parliamentary delegation had observed the election, Mr Zhelyazkov highlighted the constituent activity, adding that the election had gone on freely and transparently and that the people of Azerbaijan had opted for stability and sustained development by voting for Ilham Aliyev.

The Speaker of the Bulgarian Parliament also touched on the current successful energy co-operation – the one which had transformed Bulgaria from a consumer to a transit of energy supplies – as he talked about his country’s interest in co-operating with Azerbaijan in every area. The guest said that Bulgaria also intends to join the project design to lay an electrical cable across the Black Sea bed in the format of the green energy project. It was further remarked that Bulgaria was equally as interested in furthering co-operation in the Solidarity Ring project.

The guest praised Azerbaijan’s role in building solid peace in the region and in the delimitation-demarcation efforts and the restoring of the regional transport infrastructure, adding that Bulgarian companies, too, could join the restoration work afoot in Garabagh eventually. It was said that the Bulgarian business people intending to take part in a business forum on the sidelines of the 6^th meeting of the Inter-Governmental Commission, due in Baku before the year-end, were expected to become active in that particular area.

Azerbaijan is the leading country of the South Caucasus and Bulgaria’s chief energy partner, according to Rosen Zhelyazkov who proceeded to congratulate our country on the election as a host of the 29^th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29). That is a manifestation of Azerbaijan’s attention and care about environmental matters, in the opinion of Mr Zhelyazkov who witnessed Bulgaria’s preparedness to assist Azerbaijan in every way to host such a formidable event as the COP29 happens to be.

The Chairman of the National Assembly then broached the topic of putting our parliamentary delegation to the PACE back in this organisation. Bulgaria advocates a restored ratification of the credentials of Azerbaijan’s Delegation to the PACE. It is not customary in international parliamentary organisations to take binding steps; rather, this issue only ought to be resolved by way of dialogue, Mr Zhelyazkov stressed.

The meeting also had an exchange of opinions about development prospects of our inter-state and inter-parliamentary co-operation, and about also other matters of joint interest.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis