Azernews.Az

By Vafa Ismayilova

The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) group at UNESCO has held its regular plenary online meeting under Azerbaijan's chairmanship, the local media reported on June 30.

The meeting chaired by the head of Azerbaijan's permanent mission to UNESCO, Ambassador Elman Abdullayev, was attended by UNESCO Deputy Director-General Xing Qu and ambassadors from the NAM member and observer countries.

The meeting first approved its agenda and then presented the new ambassadors of the NAM member countries at UNESCO

Abdullayev spoke about the successful work done under Azerbaijan's NAM chairmanship.

He stressed that as NAM chairman, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev came up with an initiative to hold a summit of the NAM Contact Group on the topic "Together against COVID-19" to draw attention to the unfair and unequal distribution of coronavirus vaccines on a global scale.

UNESCO Assistant Director-General and Communication and Information Assistant Xing Qu spoke about UNESCO's strategic transformation, including efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and the main directions of the 2022-25 medium-term strategy.

The results of the previous plenary meeting held on March 30, 2021, were approved. They also exchanged views on the candidacies of the countries joining in the NAM to various UNESCO bodies.

The vaccination started in Azerbaijan on 18 January 2021. As a country chairing the NAM, Azerbaijan provided financial and humanitarian assistance to more than 30 countries.

Voluntary donations of $10 million were made to international organizations, including WHO. Of that, $5 million went to their common pandemic efforts and the other $5 million was provided to the poorest NAM member countries.

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz