2024-03-25 22:18:35
Speaker of the Milli Majlis and head of the Azerbaijani delegation to the Inter-Parliamentary Union Sahiba Gafarova spoke at the 148th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, held on March 23 in Geneva (Swiss Confederation) on the topic “Parliamentary diplomacy: building bridges in the name of peace and mutual understanding.”
As Day.Az reports, in her speech, the Speaker of the Milli Majlis wished success to the work of the 148th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Emphasizing the importance of choosing peace, security and mutual understanding as the strategic policy direction and discussion topic of the structure for 2024, she noted that the issue of peace and mutual understanding has acquired great importance and has become a decisive factor. Our hopes for a better world are closely tied to peace and understanding.
Speaking about the fact that today the world has become more fragmented and dangerous, Sahiba Gafarova said that this is a consequence of non-compliance with international rules, double standards and the dominance of the interests of certain states and is associated with the ineffectiveness of multilateral mechanisms,
The speaker brought to attention that these issues were widely discussed several days ago within the framework of the 11th Global Baku Forum on the theme “Restoring a Fractured World”, organized by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center, which was attended by more than 400 high-ranking guests from 68 countries.
Drawing attention to the general consensus on the need to create a stronger, more effective and multilateral inclusive system that underpins the United Nations, the speaker noted that this system must be based on the strict, non-discriminatory application of generally accepted norms and principles of international law, respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity states, protection of justice. It was emphasized that this is a prerequisite for restoring and maintaining the peace and understanding that we all strive to achieve.
Touching upon the growing importance of parliamentary diplomacy, the Chairman of the Milli Majlis shared her opinion on the role of parliaments in achieving peace and mutual understanding. She said that parliamentary diplomacy has become an important factor in interstate relations in the context of existing international problems, where maintaining multilateralism and international cooperation in solving global problems is more important than ever. She said it would be overly optimistic to analyze parliaments as a stand-alone instrument for dealing with peace and security issues, which should be viewed from a broader perspective. But given the concept that dialogue is a fundamental requirement for peace, parliaments become an effective additional resource for building bridges for peace and understanding. As representatives of the people, parliaments can make important contributions to issues such as trust, security and peaceful coexistence in the world.
In this context, Sahiba Gafarova highly appreciated the role of the IPA leadership, in particular Secretary General Martin Chungong, in providing a platform for the first meeting of the speakers of the parliaments of Azerbaijan and Armenia. She said that today both countries are closer to peace than ever before. Such meetings between the parliaments of the two countries will be a useful mechanism for constructive discussions.
Speaker Sahiba Gafarova, in particular, said that unlike some other inter-parliamentary organizations that shy away from their stated goals, the IPA adheres to the position of dialogue and plays an important role in creating bridges between the parties.
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