Speaker of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova had a meeting with the visiting delegation led by Speaker of the People’s Assembly of the Republic of Dagestan of the Russian Federation Zaur Askenderov on 23 December.

Speaker of the Milli Majlis greeted the guests and recalled with pleasure her meeting with Zaur Askenderov in Baku in March the previous year. As she was talking about the historical ties between our peoples and our shared values, Speaker Sahiba Gafarova expressed satisfaction that the relations between Azerbaijan and Russia, established by National Leader Heydar Aliyev and continuing prosperously today with the support of Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Vladimir Putin. She emphasised that reciprocal visits make a significant contribution to these relations and also mentioned the fruitful co-operation between Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation subjects including the Republic of Dagestan. She also broached the close ties between the Federation Council and the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on the one hand and the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan on the other.

Speaker Sahiba Gafarova said that approximately 300 documents embracing various areas have been signed between Azerbaijan and Russia to date, adding that the Declaration of Allied Interaction between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation occupies a special place amongst those documents. It was said then, too, that the South Caucasus’ largest Russian community live in Azerbaijan and that Russian is taught extensively at several educational institutions of our country.

Speaker Sahiba Gafarova proceeded to tell the guest about the building and restoration work under way in the territories liberated by Azerbaijan in the 44 days’ Patriotic War, the ‘smart town’ and ‘smart village’ projects in implementation currently and the pressure that Azerbaijan had been subjected to ahead of the COP29, a tremendous international event. Besides, she supplied the colleague with detailed information about the progress of the peace process between Azerbaijan and Armenia and about also the hurdles put in this process’ way.

Thanking for the meeting, Speaker of the People’s Assembly of the Republic of Dagestan Zaur Askenderov addressed the historical connexions between the peoples of Dagestan and Azerbaijan and the values their share. He congratulated Speaker Sahiba Gafarova on her re-election and the successful conduct of the parliamentary elections. It was said then that the parliamentary elections are of historic significance given they had for the first time been conducted in the whole sovereign territory of Azerbaijan.

The guest shared his thoughts on the role of National Leader Heydar Aliyev in the development of Russian-Azerbaijani relations, the dynamic progress of Azerbaijan under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev, the further strengthening of the bonds between our countries in all the covered spheres and the importance of public diplomacy.

Then, they highlit the significant role of parliaments in the development of mutual relations, discussed the importance of the Milli Majlis' ties with the Federal Assembly, the Federation Council and the State Duma of the Russian Federation as well as with the People's Assembly of Dagestan, and emphasised the importance of the intensity of reciprocal visits.

Zaur Askenderov mentioned the large Azerbaijani diaspora present in Dagestan, saying the Azerbaijanis live in Dagestan as one big family.

Also, the meeting had an exchange of opinions about the continued development of the inter-parliamentary relations and other matters of shared interest.

The Press and Public Relations Department

The Milli Majlis