Azernews.Az

By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and the head of World Health Organization (WHO) in Azerbaijan Hande Harmanci have discussed mutual cooperation and the fight against COVID-19 pandemic.

During the meeting, Bayramov stressed that Azerbaijan attaches great importance to cooperation with WHO, highlighting work carried out in Azerbaijan to combat COVID-19 within the country and at the international level.

The minister underlined that the high-level meetings of international organizations, including the Cooperation Council of Turkic-Speaking States, the Non-Aligned Movement, and a special session of the UN General Assembly, dedicated to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, have been held at the initiative of the Azerbaijani president.

The minister stressed that Azerbaijan supports equal and fair distribution of vaccines against COVID-19 in the world.

In turn, Harmanci briefed the participants on the projects implemented by the WHO in Azerbaijan, including the activity of training centers in the country’s 12 districts, on the services of mobile trainings through the support of the UN Central Emergency Response Fund in the five conflict-affected regions of Azerbaijan. In addition, she provided information on the work with people in need of assistive technologies, strengthening the ambulance system and other activities.

Harmanci announced that the WHO regional director plans to visit the region soon.

Bayramov emphasized the importance of the visits in terms of expanding cooperation noting the great importance attached to the regional director’s visit.

Additionally, the minister spoke about the construction and restoration work being carried out in Azerbaijan’s liberated territories, saying that WHO and other UN structures can participate in restoration projects.

It should be noted that Azerbaijan has spent AZN 39.3 million ($23.1M) to support international measures to combat the pandemic. This includes AZN 17 million ($9.9M) sent by Azerbaijan to the World Health Organization.

The Azerbaijan WHO Country Office was established in June 2004 in Baku.

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Ayya Lmahamad is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @AyyaLmahamad

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