Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova had a meeting as part of her current official visit to Slovakia with the Slovak Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Ivan Korčok.

Ivan Korčok expressed satisfaction with meeting Sahiba Gafarova. He went on to talk about the Azerbaijani-Slovak relations’ development prospects and whilst so doing pointed at the role of parliamentary diplomacy in deepening such relations. Mr Korčok also underlined the importance of exchanging high-status visits. He said as he recalled his trip to Azerbaijan in March this year and the meetings he had had during it that such visits bore well on bilateral relations.

Sahiba Gafarova thanked for the hospitality before saying that the successful political relations between the two countries made it possible to foster interaction in other areas as well. Azerbaijan, she said, is interested in a continued expansion of the co-operation with the EU member-states as much as it is in acceleration of the integration processes. Our country thinks it important to promote its links with Slovakia as one of the EU countries. We co-operate in a number of international organisations; there are opportunities to broaden the bilateral inter-parliamentary connexions, too, Sahiba Gafarova was saying.

Azerbaijan, a meeting-spot for interacting civilisations, is now recognised as a multicultural country while the tolerance that reigns here can set an example for other states to follow, emphasised the Chair of the Milli Majlis.

The 44-day Patriotic War of Azerbaijan having resulted in the liberation of the Azerbaijani lands was talked about as well. The Chair of the Milli Majlis remarked as she was talking about that in great detail that the thirty-year-long Armenian occupation had been terminated thanks to the valour of our Army led by Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev. in addition, Azerbaijan also enforced the UN Security Council resolutions all by itself. That conflict is in the past now; Azerbaijan is busy restoring its freed lands.

Armenia had looted and destroyed our towns and villages during the occupation; now, Armenia is resorting to provocations so that no peace and security can be maintained in the region – this is especially true of the refusal to disclose the minefield maps, Mrs Gafarova continued. She remarked as she was informing Mr Korčok about all this that Armenia’s refusal to make the minefield maps available contradicted the international principles.

The decree signed by President Ilham Aliyev in July this year has redrawn the boundaries of the economic regions of the Azerbaijan Republic with the establishment of the two new economic regions of Garabagh and East Zangazur, according to the Chair of the Milli Majlis. The emergence of the Zangazur Corridor is extremely importance because not only would this corridor play a serious role in restoring regional communications, but it would also bolster co-operation, peace and security in the region dramatically. Armenia ought to accept the new reality and act accordingly. Azerbaijan is a country forever ready for co-operation; a country that advocates it invariably. The energy, transport and other collaboration platforms that Azerbaijan has so far proposed in the format of the regional relations have served the cause of the whole region’s progress without fail.

As the conversation drew on, there was also an exchange of opinions about making the economic connexions of the two countries yet broader, what steps are there to take to boost the trade turnovers, the moves to counter the COVID-19 pandemic, a continued intensification of the co-operation when the pandemic ends and other matters of shared interest and concern.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis