Azernews.Az

By Trend

Azerbaijan attaches great importance to CIS membership, said Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev during the meeting of the CIS Heads of State in Bishkek on September16.

“We believe that the organization has come a long way and withstood the test of time throughout 25 years,” said President Aliyev.

“Our organization was established as a result of certain historical events and thanks to the wisdom of our peoples and leaders, after 25 years, we have this organization which is of great importance both for the region and world, because the geography of our organization is quite large,” added the president.

“In a friendly environment, we discuss important issues which concern our countries and our peoples,” said President Aliyev. “There are many issues which need to be addressed.”

“I would like to mention Azerbaijan’s active role in strengthening the cooperation in humanitarian sphere. We attach great importance to this. I believe that the cooperation in humanitarian sphere is the basis of our collaboration. Probably, without this, there wouldn’t be that level of trust and understanding which exists today,” he added.

“Azerbaijan, for its part, within our organization and in general, initiates various international events,” said President Aliyev.

A few days later, Baku will host the 5th International Baku Humanitarian Forum under the patronage of Russian and Azerbaijani presidents, he said, adding that this forum has already become a very important international platform to discuss the issues related to humanitarian cooperation.

President Aliyev pointed out that these issues are always in the limelight, especially, in the present, when it can be seen how the humanitarian cooperation issues are sometimes interpreted in various countries.

“We see the so-called ‘migrant crisis’. We see it, but unfortunately, instead of strengthening the mutual understanding between peoples and enhancing the cooperation in humanitarian sphere, it all goes in reverse: a process of splitting for ethnic, religious principle and grounds goes on. We are very concerned about this, since our organization is also strong for that representatives of peoples with different culture, faith and traditions are in it,” said the president.

“We are united by a common desire to strengthen the cooperation. I should also inform the colleagues that this year was declared the ‘Year of Multiculturalism’ in Azerbaijan,” he said. “Azerbaijan has already been recognized as one of the centers of multiculturalism on a global scale. Baku hosted the 7th Global Forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations this year.”

“I would also like to emphasize the importance we attach to cooperation in the economic sphere both in bilateral format with member states and in multilateral format,” said President Aliyev.

“Good prospects are opening up here as well. Despite the level of decline in economic activity in the world, I believe that we will succeed to maintain the tendencies for the development of economic cooperation.”

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