Baku, June 30, AZERTAC

Speaker of the Azerbaijani Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova has met with Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orban as part of her official visit to the country.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban thanked Speaker Sahiba Gafarova and the delegation of Azerbaijan for their official visit to Hungary. He said that delegations coming from Azerbaijan were ever special guests of the Hungarian people and state. Then, he underscored the importance of reciprocal visits and said he was certain that the Azerbaijani delegation’s current stay in Hungary, too, will contribute to the progress of the relations between the two countries.

The interaction between the two legislatures is progressing, too, Victor Orban noted before commending the respective friendship groups on their work. “Hungary finds the furtherance of its relations with the friendly state of Azerbaijan to be of great importance whilst the current political, economic, cultural and humanitarian collaboration of the two states is on the increase as well, PM Viktor Orban mentioned.

Speaking of the broad cooperation between Hungary and Azerbaijan in the energy sector, Victor Orban pointed at Azerbaijan’s role, irreplaceable for his country, in the maintenance of energy security.

Speaker of Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova thanked for the warm welcome and conveyed the greetings of President Ilham Aliyev to PM Viktor Orban. Sahiba Gafarova touched on the common historical roots of the two peoples and pointed at the similarities amongst so many of respective values - including the family values that deserve a special mention. “Azerbaijan attaches great importance to the progress of cooperation with Hungary, one of the states that were the first to recognize its independence. The bilateral political ties have been elevated to a new level with Azerbaijan having regained state independence. The weighty role in attaining such a level of the good relationship between President Ilham Aliyev and PM Victor Orban is beyond whatever doubt,” Gafarova said.

The legal documents concerned with the bilateral cooperation that have been signed to date are of key importance. Speaking of the recent Azerbaijani-Hungarian trade volume indicators, Sahiba Gafarova underlined the presence of the potential to increase the bilateral trade. “Azerbaijan is a major economic hub of the South Caucasus as much as it is a dependable energy security partner and a critical party to the diversification of the energy supply routes that lead to Europe - as can be seen from the Trans-Anatolian (TANAP) and Trans-Adriatic (TAP) pipeline projects accomplished but recently,” the Speaker noted.

Touching upon the current high-standard humanitarian ties between the two countries, Speaker Gafarova mentioned the projects implemented in Hungary with the backing from the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and placed a special emphasis on Azerbaijan’s First Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva having been decorated with Hungary’s top award for her merits in that field.

Referring to the bilateral inter-parliamentary ties, Sahiba Gafarova said that both legislatures have mutual parliamentary friendship groups. “Our MPs cooperate with success in the international parliamentary organisations. And, of course, it is to be stated with conviction that the two parties will stay true to this line of action in the future, too,” Gafarova mentioned. “It is exceedingly pleasant that Hungary is solidifying its unity with the Turkic World, at the state level as much as at the parliamentary one. It is equally gratifying that the National Assembly of Hungary has the observer status in the TURKPA - the Parliamentary Assembly of the Turkic-Speaking States, Gafarova pointed out.

Speaker Sahiba Gafarova brought to PM Victor Orban’s attention the fact that Azerbaijan, which had stood the test of history with flying colours in 2020, had won a brilliant victory and liberated its own lands in the 44-day Patriotic War. On her own behalf and on behalf of the Milli Majlis, Sahiba Gafarova also thanked for the support to Azerbaijan’s just stance given by the people and state of Hungary. “The liberation of lands in Karabakh was followed by the commencement of the restoration and creativity work there. However, Armenia is putting spokes in the wheels. Armenia is declining to make minefield maps available, resorts to provocations, causes trouble with border delimitation and demarcation and allows groups of terrorists to sneak over into the Azerbaijani freed lands. Military personnel and civilians including journalists die or get wounded because of Armenia’s refusal to hand over the maps of the mined areas,” she said.

Speaker Sahiba Gafarova expressed her gratitude to the Hungarian side for its help extended to the ANAMA in its demining work in those provinces. That assistance is a manifestation of the friendly attitude of Hungary, she noted.

Prime Minister Victor Orban asked Speaker Sahiba Gafarova to convey his greetings to President Ilham Aliyev.

The sides expressed the shared confidence of continued progress in the two countries’ relations and exchanged views on the issues of mutual interest.