Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijan passed the Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (CoE) to Belgium on November 13.

Representatives of CoE’s 47 member States attended the meeting at the Organization’s Strasbourg headquarters.

Before handing over the chairmanship to his successor, the outgoing Chair Elmar Mammadyarov, Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan, gave an overview of his country’s achievements during its chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers.

“Today the Azerbaijani chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe is coming to an end,” Mammadyarov said. “As you know, this was the first chairmanship of my country since joining the Council of Europe as a full-fledge member in 2001.”

Mammadyarov said he is proud to state that Azerbaijan deployed considerable efforts in furthering the objectives of the CoE during its chairmanship.

“These six months were rather challenging as our continent is going through difficult times of its history,” the foreign minister added.

Mammadyarov further said the priorities of the Azerbaijani chairmanship were identified taking full account of the topical issues on the agenda of the CoE and persistent challenges encountered by member states.

The new Chair of the Committee of Ministers, Didier Reynders, Vice-Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign and European affairs of Belgium, presented the priorities of the Belgian chairmanship which will run for six months as of today.

Azerbaijan took its six-month presidency in the Committee of Ministers from May 14. On this occasion, the national flag of Azerbaijan was raised before the Strasbourg City Hall.