Baku, November 26, AZERTAC

Speaker of the Azerbaijani Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova has addressed the 53rd plenary session of the Interparliamentary Assembly of Member Nations of the Commonwealth of Independent States (IPA CIS) in Saint Petersburg.

Speaker Sahiba Gafarova said that parliamentary diplomacy, which is capable of actualizing its creative potential on an extensive international scale, is gaining in significance today. Gafarova mentioned the rising interest in the CIS IPA, which she attributed to its new ideas and projects as well as the international events conducted under the auspices of the Assembly.

Speaker of the Milli Majlis emphasized the importance of the Third Eurasian Women’s Forum and the weight of the fact that the parliamentarians had been able to continue the global environmental dialogue at the site provided by the Nevsky International Ecological Congress held on 9 May this year.

“It is laudable that the parliamentarians were able to discuss what further steps are to be taken to reinforce interaction in the field of maintaining the environmental safety – one which is so necessary today,” Sahiba Gafarova noted.

“It was with great enthusiasm that we accepted the chairmanship of Azerbaijan in the Youth Parliamentary Assembly of the CIS Member States due next year. I am convinced that the Youth Assembly will continue the young parliamentarians’ contribution to the general advance of inter-state cooperation under our representative’s co-ordination,” Gafarova mentioned.

“As you know, we began restoration and large-scale re-construction in the liberated territories when we had won the 44 days’ war with Armenia. I am certain that we shall be able to return to those parts, and very soon, too, the IDP, the more than a million people hit hard by the Armenian occupation. As you know, the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan was ended on the force of the trilateral statement that the leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia signed on 10 November last year… We have put several proposals to Armenia so that we can begin work on a peace treaty, on delimitation and demarcation of the state borders with the mutual recognition of the territorial integrities. This is in conformity with the international law norms. We want stability and well-being in the whole of the region; we want to talk about peace and the future rather than about war,” Sahiba Gafarova pointed out.

“I am convinced that having assembled here for our meeting held in the in-person format, we manifest the readiness to continue stepping up the cooperation under the umbrella of the Assembly along the lines of mutual respect and support,” Speaker Sahiba Gafarova concluded.