Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova, currently on a working visit to the Russian Federation, has had a conversation with Hans Kluge, Director of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Office for Europe.

Mrs Gafarova talked about the productive co-operation between Azerbaijan and the WHO and accentuated the diversity of the relations with the WHO that has been active in our country since 1994.

Mr Kluge was made aware of the anti-COVID-19 steps taken in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is one of the countries driving the effort to achieve equal and fair access to COVID-19 vaccines. The high assessment given by the WHO to Azerbaijan's contribution to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic on a global scale confirms once again the importance of our country's initiatives for the whole world, according to the head of the Azerbaijani legislature.

Within a short period, Azerbaijan has provided financial and humanitarian assistance to more than 30 countries and international organisations, including a voluntary donation of USD 10 mn to the WHO.

The Turkic Council summit held in April 2020, the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in May the same year and the special session of the UN General Assembly rallying heads of states and governments in December last year, all on the instance of President Ilham Aliyev, reaffirm that Azerbaijan is a strong state ready to take responsibility for solving global problems. Those initiatives demonstrated our country's commitment to international solidarity and co-operation once more, Mrs Gafarova was saying.

Director of the WHO Regional Office for Europe Hans Kluge witnessed satisfaction with his conversation with the speaker of the legislature of our country, stated the high evaluation of Azerbaijan’s contribution to countering the pandemic and the efforts to check its spread and underlined the successful continuation of this process now. Besides, Mr Kluge stressed that the steps that the Azerbaijani Government had taken at the early stages of the pandemic and the decisions that followed showed that the situation was under the full control of the Azerbaijani president. Going further, Mr Kluge thanked Azerbaijan for its support and contribution to the global pandemic response, saying then that Azerbaijan was one of the first countries to take action and to stand in the way of COVID-19.

Other matters were discussed at the meeting then.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis