Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova had a meeting on 27 April with Deputy Prime Minister/ Minister for Defence of Latvia Artis Pabriks who is visiting in Azerbaijan currently.

Sahiba Gafarova told Artis Pabriks that she was pleased to welcome him at the Milli Majlis. She also stated confidently that the meetings and discussions included in the scope of the visit of Mr Pabriks would play a role of their own in the progress of the bilateral relations.

Azerbaijan and Latvia are friendly states; an exceptional contribution to the advancement of their interaction is made by high-level reciprocal visits as well as meetings. In this sense, one should mention the immensely important documents signed during President Ilham Aliyev’s travels to Latvia and the Latvian presidents’ arrivals in our country, Mrs Gafarova said.

The leader of the Azerbaijani legislature also shared her thoughts about the prospects of Azerbaijan’s interaction with the European Union and about the co-operation in which Azerbaijan is engaged within international organisations. Besides, she touched on the activities of Latvia as an EU member. It was said that co-operation with the EU was one of the foreign political priorities of Azerbaijan and that the negotiations about signing a new bilateral treaty were in their closing phase. Besides, our country has strategic partnership agreements signed with a number of EU member-states.

Regarding the Azerbaijani-Latvian inter-parliamentary ties, the Chair of the Milli Majlis recalled the conversations she had had with Chair of Latvia’s Saeima Ināra Mūrniece and the other Latvian leaders during the visit to Riga two months ago. Azerbaijan is a state set firmly on its independent foreign political course; the inter-parliamentary connexions play a formidable role in the paradigm of inter-state relations. Our legislatures have built up efficient co-operation with such highlights as the visits the two sides exchange and the work done by their parliamentary friendship groups.

The head of the Milli Majlis went further to talk about Azerbaijan’s victory in the 44-day Patriotic War. She said her thanks for the victory congratulations received from Latvia. There is no conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan anymore whilst a new reality is established in the region. The normalisation of the Azerbaijani-Armenian relations was in the focus at the meeting of President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, President Charles Michel of the EU Council and PM Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia in Brussels on 6 April. The outcomes of that conversation indicate the acceptance of the Azerbaijani normalisation initiatives by Armenia. Armenia should honour the obligations it assumed and take weighty steps to that end. We want to speak of peace and future and not war.

Deputy PM/Minister for Defence of Latvia Artis Pabriks thanked for the meeting before describing Azerbaijan as a friendly state to Latvia and emphasising the interest of Latvia in furthering the diverse connexions with Azerbaijan. Once again, Mr Pabriks congratulated Azerbaijan on her having liberated its lands.

Our country is Latvia’s key strategic partner in the South Caucasus, according to DPM Pabriks who made known his considerations about opportunities to strength further trade and interaction in investments, clean energy and other areas. He also talked about the prospects for combining efforts to sweep the de-occupied territories of Azerbaijan of mines and continuing the co-operation in the international organisations. Besides, DPM Pabriks underlined the special roles of the parliaments in the growth of the Latvian-Azerbaijani relations.

Latvia wishes that the South Caucasian countries should live in peace and stability, and is prepared to go on extending her support to Azerbaijan in international entities, according to Artis Pabriks.

Other matters of mutual interest and concern were discussed during the conversation, too.

The chairman of the Milli Majlis Defence, Security and Counter-Corruption Committee/leader of the Azerbaijani delegation to the NATO PA Ziyafet Asgarov, the head of the Azerbaijan-Latvia inter-parliamentary connexions working group Kamran Bayramov, the ambassador of Azerbaijan in Riga Elnur Sultanov and other officials also took part in the meeting. 

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis