Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova currently in Vilnius on an official visit met with President of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda on 4 February.

The president of Lithuania welcomed the speaker of the Milli Majlis, telling her then that Azerbaijan was a friendly state and an important partner to Lithuania and that the advance of the bilateral relations was very much bolstered by high-level visits and meetings. The bilateral relations are progressing in various areas, thusly serving the interests of both nations. President Nausėda witnessed his satisfaction with the relations and interaction through twinning projects as well as in education. He referred to the existing sound opportunities to boost the volume of trade and make the economic co-operation stronger still.

Lithuania has an interest in dependable peace and security provisions in our region, and is behind the principle of territorial integrity of states, Mr Nausėda added.

What else was said was that Lithuania backs the co-operation between Azerbaijan and the European Union as much as it does the participation of our country in the Eastern Partnership Programme. President Nausėda hailed the attendance by President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan of the 5^th EU European Neighbourhood Summit that had been held in Brussels in December last year.

In turn, Speaker Sahiba Gafarova voiced her appreciation of the hospitality extended to our delegation and said that that was her first ever visit to Lithuania in the role of Speaker of the Milli Majlis of the Azerbaijan Republic. Mrs Gafarova said she was hopeful that this visit was going to foster a yet deeper kind of relations between the legislative assemblies of the two countries.

The mutual visits of the presidents of Azerbaijan and Lithuania are special drivers behind the evolution of the bipartite relations, Mrs Gafarova stressed. The documents signed during those visits had pushed our interaction to a new level, she added before bringing out Azerbaijan’s ties with the European Union and our country’s contribution to the energy security in Europe.

The Chair of the Milli Majlis also referred to Azerbaijan’s victory in the 44-day Patriotic War and the new reality that exists in our region now. Our country made its national territory whole again and put an end to the very fact of occupation thanks to that victory. There is no conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan anymore: it simply does not exist. Our country is busy repairing and restoring its de-occupied lands these days.

Sahiba Gafarova added with stress that Azerbaijan had put several peace treaty signing offers to Armenia that should lead to mutual recognition of sovereignty and territorial integrity by these countries – as much as it would bring about the start of the state borders’ delimitation and demarcation, make possible to restore and reopen all communications in the region and normalise the relations. Armenia should assess this new reality is established in the region correctly and honour what duties befall that state in the cause of keeping up peace and stability here, Mrs Gafarova said.

Other matters of interest to both sides were also discussed during the conversation.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis