Azerbaijani Parliamentary Speaker addresses NAM Parliamentary Network conference
The Second Conference of the Parliamentary Network of the Non-Aligned Movement has taken place in Manama, Bahrain, Azernews reports citing the press and public relations department of the Milli Majlis.
According to the information from the Milli Majlis, over 300 delegates, amongst them speakers of more than twenty parliaments and in excess of 60 delegations participated in the event.
The Chair of the Milli Majlis/NAM Parliamentary network Sahiba Gafarova hailed the delegations and delivered the opening speech.
She noted that the NAM Parliamentary Network is at the fore as one of the more substantial outcomes of the efforts made by Azerbaijan, the Movement’s Chairing State, to ensure its institutional growth, and recalled the decision at the NAM Summit Meeting in Baku in October 2019 to broaden and deepen co-operation amongst the Member Parliaments.
She emphasized that the NAM Parliamentary Network had been established on the sidelines of the 143rd IPU Assembly in November 2021 pursuant to the initiative of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
The Statute on Working Modalities of the Network and the Baku Declaration was adopted, the official logo and flag of the Network were chosen and the Chair and three Vice-Chairs of the Network were elected for three-year tenures during the Baku Conference.
She underscored that the promotion of the values and principles of the NAM through strengthening solidarity and cooperation and developing institutional dialogue with other organizations had been an equally important subject broached at those meetings. Consequently, the Network has already elaborated mechanisms of cooperation with such inter-parliamentary institutions as the Asian Parliamentary Assembly, the Arab Parliament, the OIC Parliamentary Union, the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic States, and the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly, and has also acquired observer status in them. The work continues now to broaden those frameworks, according to Sahiba Gafarova.
She noted that as regards bilateral cooperation, Azerbaijan’s Milli Majlis has formed parliamentary friendship groups with the legislatures of 16 NAM Member States, which spells out our goal of continuing the strengthening of cooperation with all the Movement parliaments.
Saying that the 2nd Conference of the Network was dedicated to parliamentary support to the national and global efforts on post-pandemic recovery, Speaker Gafarova mentioned, a proposal, made at the 2 March Summit Meeting in Baku to create a NAM Contact Group against COVID-19.
Sahiba Gafarova stressed that one of the most practical outcomes of the Summit-Level Meeting was the declaration by President Aliyev of two Global Calls to support the post-pandemic recovery in Africa and Small Island Developing States. Azerbaijan as the first donor has allocated 1 million US dollars for both Global Calls in line with this initiative.
The Azerbaijani Chairmanship of the Network proposed the establishment of a Parliamentary Support Group for post-pandemic global recovery initiatives of the NAM Chairmanship seeking to secure support and promotion by parliamentary means for those two Global Calls within the NAM and globally alike.
She went further to emphasize that the problem of neo-colonialism was another important issue requiring attention. Whilst the NAM has always been unanimous on this issue, France’s rejection of the unquestionable sovereignty of the Union of Comoros over the island of Mayotte as well as its violation of the rights of the New Caledonian people and other peoples in the French overseas territories show that this dangerous tendency is, actually, on the rise. Sahiba Gafarova believes that the NAM parliaments should stand firm against any act in such a disgraceful strain and combine efforts with the Member Governments to fend it off.
The 2nd NAM PN Conference also focuses on exchanging views on further institutionalization of the Parliamentary Network.
She said that given consideration of the communications received from a number of Member Parliaments, the Azerbaijani Chairmanship proposed several amendments to the Statute on Working Modalities. It is believed that developing and improving the working methods of the Network further is an important component of its institutional formation and effective operation.
Concluding her speech, the Chair of the Milli Majlis shared with the participants of the Conference her firm belief that the Parliamentary Network is on the way to becoming an important asset for the promotion of ideals and principles of the NAM as well as of multilateralism, dialogue, and interparliamentary co-operation.
The decisions ‘On Establishing the NAM PN Parliamentary Group of Support for Post-Pandemic Global Recovery Initiatives of the NAM Chairmanship’, ‘On Granting of the Observer Status to International Parliamentary Organisations in the Parliamentary Network of the Non-Aligned Movement’ and ‘On Amending the Working Modalities of the NAM PN’ as well as the Manama Declaration was passed at the Conference.
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