The chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova who is the Austrian capital of Vienna on a working visit met with Secretary General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Martin Chungong there on 6 September.

    As the meeting went on, Speaker Sahiba Gafarova witnessed pleasure with the co-operation between Azerbaijan and the IPU, saying that the visits of IPU officials including Secretary General Martin Chungong to our country had been very worthwhile. Mrs Gafarova also underlined the tremendous role this international parliamentary union has in establishing and reinforcing inter-parliamentary relations world-wide. According to the leader of the Azerbaijani parliament maintaining bilateral and multilateral co-operation with the international parliamentary organisations, the Milli Majlis finds it of utmost importance to broaden its bonds with the IPU.

     Sahiba Gafarova mentioned Azerbaijan having hosted many international-scale forums and summits including an IPU event with success.

      The meeting saw a detailed account of the new realia in our region, the victory of Azerbaijan in the 44 days’ Patriotic War and the work our country is doing in execution of the Trilateral Statement signed on 10 November last year. Sahiba Gafarova pointed out that Azerbaijan had defeated Armenia the aggressor under the leadership of Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev thus ending the occupation that had lasted for thirty years and recovered its own national integrity. It was thanks to the political will of the Azerbaijani side and the valour of our Army that the four resolutions of the UN Security Council that concerned the conflict and had remained on paper since 1993 had been enforced in the end. As for now, our country is busy demining, installing public services and amenities and building in the liberated Garabagh. Besides, Azerbaijan is doing an important kind of work on establishing sustainable peace, stability and security in the South Caucasus. Whereas Armenia will not desist from provocative encroachments.

    The IPU Secretary General Martin Chungong said that he was pleased peace had been restored to the region. He shared the impressions of his visit to Azerbaijan in 2017, recalling the meetings he had had with the refugees and internally displaced people and having got to know of the problems of those people.

   Mr Chungong praised how the Milli Majlis is represented in the IPU, saying then that he hoped our country would join one of the Union’s geopolitical groups – this membership would bring tangible fruit, in his opinion. The IPU is interested in broadening the co-operation with the parliament of Azerbaijan, Mr Chungong noted before underscoring the importance of the Azeri delegation to the IPU taking part in the meetings of the Union committees.

Bilateral co-operation prospects were also discussed at the meeting.   

The Press and Public Relations Department

The Milli Majlis