BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 12. Chair of the Milli
Majlis Sahiba Gafarova, currently in the capital of the Kingdom of
Bahrain, Manama, on a working visit, has had a meeting in the
visit’s course with Secretary General of the ASEAN
Inter-Parliamentary Assembly Siti Rozaimeriyanty Dato Haji Abdul
Rahman, Trend reports
with reference to the press service of the Azerbaijani
Parliament.
The high standards set by the co-operation between the
Azerbaijani legislature and the AIPA and the Milli Majlis’ having
been made an observer with the AIPA last year were brought up
during the conversation. It was pointed out that normally
parliaments had to wait for 2-3 years to obtain this status whereas
the pertaining application of our country was endorsed
instantly.
Sahiba Gafarova said, speaking as Chair of the Parliamentary
Network of the Non-Aligned Movement, that this Network was keen on
striking up active ties with inter-parliamentary entities including
the AIPA. Her narrative about the work and workings of the NAM PN
included the reference to the broad international support for the
substantive initiatives brought forth by President Ilham Aliyev of
Azerbaijan in his capacity of the Chair of the NAM. The NAM
Parliamentary Network, the fruit of one of such initiatives, is
drawing the ever-growing international attention, according to
Gafarova who told her vis-à-vis of the Network’s inaugural session
in Madrid in 2021, its first conference held in Baku and the
preparations made for the second conference that is due to take
place in the Bahraini capital tomorrow. The Network’s co-operation
with other inter-parliamentary organisations is growing at the same
time, what with it having become an observer in these three
inter-parliamentary entities: the Asian Parliamentary Assembly, the
Parliamentary Union of the OIC Member States and the Arab
Parliament.
The Secretary General of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly
praised the successful Azerbaijani presidency of the Parliamentary
Network of the Non-Aligned Movement and underscored the extensive
international endorsement of the steps taken by our state to ensure
the institutional development of the Network.
That was followed by an exchange of opinions about several
matters of shared interest, and the conversation was capped with
the inking of a Memorandum of Understanding between the
Parliamentary Network of the Non-Aligned Movement and the ASEAN
Inter-Parliamentary Assembly.