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.