Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova took the floor at the discussion of the motion ‘The Global Response to COVID-19 Pandemic Challenges Multilateralism’s Ability to Deliver for the People’ at the 5^th World Conference of Speakers of Parliament in the Austrian capital of Vienna.

Underlining the urgent need for the international community to inject energy in the efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, Sahiba Gafarova told of our country’s initiatives and measures put forth on the global scale to counter the pandemic. The chair of the Milli Majlis noted that Azerbaijan as Chair of the Non-Aligned Movement arranged an online summit session of the NAM Contact Group in Response to COVID-19 in May 2020 so as to support the world-wide effort in addressing the impact of the pandemic. Speaking on behalf of Azerbaijan, President Ilham Aliyev suggested convening a special session of the UN General Assembly at the level of heads of states and governments to focus on combating the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 150 UN Member States endorsed that initiative; a special session of the UN General Assembly on countering COVID-19 took place in New York in December 2020 subsequently.

Mrs Gafarova let it be known that Azerbaijan had provided more than 30 countries with humanitarian and financial aid in the anti-pandemic field.

She then recalled the unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global supply chain, saying that its resilience would be reinforced and states would be helped in their post-COVID recovery efforts consequently by promotion of connectivity through transport and trade facilitation, including with the use of digital technologies. Madame Speaker said also that the trans-regional transport projects of Azerbaijan were poised to contribute to achieving those goals.

Recalling then the several proposals put forth by Azerbaijan to take resolute, determined and co-ordinated steps in the post-pandemic period, Madame Chair noted that calling a high-level meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement Member States to formulate the NAM’s position concerning the post-pandemic recovery stage was one of such proposals.

Azerbaijan also finds it worthwhile for the NAM to come up with an initiative of establishing a UN High-Level Panel on Global Recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Such a panel could produce recommendations on global measures to afford the word a faster and more successful exit from the pandemic.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis