TODAY.AZ / Politics

Parliament Speaker: Azerbaijan takes steps to ensure advancement of NAM

07 October 2022 [10:24] - TODAY.AZ

By Azernews

By Sabina Mammadli

Substantial steps are being taken under Azerbaijan's chairmanship to ensure the advancement of the Non-Aligned Movement, Azerbaijani Parliament Speaker Sahiba Gafarova said.

She made the remarks during her speech at the 8th summit of the G20 Parliamentary Speakers in Jakarta.

According to Gafarova, those steps are the inception of the NAM Youth Organization on the basis of the Youth Network and the installment of a NAM support office in NYC.

She also noted the special session of the UN General Assembly devoted to the COVID-19 pandemic, which was convened at the instance of the Azerbaijani president in December 2020.

"That as well as the adopted resolutions about ensuring equitable, affordable, timely, and universal access to the COVID-19 vaccines and the initiative of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to form a UN High-Level Panel to generate recommendations concerning post-pandemic global recovery is our country’s contribution to international co-operation," she said.

During her speech, Gafarova stressed that poverty, the humanitarian crisis and conflicts, social inequality, climatic changes, and other modern challenges are impossible to overcome alone.

“One of the most useful lessons that the COVID-19 pandemic taught the whole world was that global challenges require global solutions, and those collective efforts and joint activities are essential. Parliamentarians as representatives of their peoples ought to take part in the discussions held to find the best solutions for the problems of universal concern. The legislatures’ cooperation platforms prove the undertaking and resolve to pursue joint endeavors for a better world,” she noted.

The speaker emphasized that the P20 summit is very important in this sense as it is an event capable of defining what roles the parliaments could play and of determining what contributions they can make to addressing present-day problems. She added that the summit also matters as a muster point for parliamentarians and as a venue where various aspects of the parliament-government cooperation can be discussed in an overarching manner.

Talking about the newly founded Parliamentary Network of the Non-Aligned Movement, Gafarova provided detailed information about this entity, the emergence of which is the result of the initiative that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev had put forth as the incumbent NAM Chair.

Gafarova expressed confidence that the Network was going to become a serious platform upon which to promote multilateralism, dialogue, and inter-parliamentary cooperation.

She added that the Network was also prepared to make an input in achieving common goals through active interaction with the other parliamentary institutions.

"If we want to eliminate international-scale problems to come to fruition, we should strengthen the international institutions, enforce adopted documents and put an end to double standards and selective approaches," Gafarova said.

Here, the speaker brought up the nearly 30-year occupation of Azerbaijani lands by Armenia, in particular the occupation of 20 percent of the territory, internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. She also mentioned the ethnic cleansing by Armenia in those lands, which led to more than a million Azerbaijanis becoming refugees and displaced persons.

"About 4,000 citizens of Azerbaijan, civilians and servicemen alike, are still missing consequent to that conflict. Armenia, meanwhile, had demolished all of our towns and villages in the captured provinces and had vandalized all the historical and cultural artifacts and sites of Azerbaijan during the years of occupation. The four resolutions that the UN Security Council passed in 1993 as well as the resolutions and decisions of the UN General Assembly, the Non-Aligned Movement, the OSCE, and Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and of other international establishments demanded the immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of Armenia’s armed forces from the Azerbaijani territories. But Armenia had ignored them all. In the end, Azerbaijan resorted to its own resources to enforce the resolutions of the UN Security Council as well as the international law’s standards and principles whilst also restoring historical justice and liberating its lands," she said.

Further, Gafarova informed the audience of the ongoing post-war efforts of Azerbaijan to establish lasting peace and stability in the region.

She highlighted that Azerbaijan had offered a normalization of relations with Armenia and signed a peace treaty based upon five principles of international law. The speaker noted that mutual recognition of sovereignty and territorial integrity, delimitation, and demarcation of the borders will lead to peace and stability in the region.

"But Armenia demonstrates a destructive attitude to the conversations going on through international efforts. Armenia is obstructing the opening of communications and transport routes in the region. This process is equally hindered by the latest Armenian military provocations of September 13, 2022. The most important thing to do right now is to avoid making any move likely to harm the normalization of relations because it is the only path to long-term peace in the region," Gafarova said.

URL: http://www.today.az/news/politics/226530.html

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