Sahiba Gafarova addresses the Non-Aligned Movement Youth Organization

Speaker of Azrebaijan’s Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova delivered a speech as a guest of honour at the event “The Role of Youth in Parliamentary Cooperation” held at the Headquarters of the Non-Aligned Movement Youth Organisation (NAMYO) on September 14.

In her remarks, Speaker Sahiba Gafarova highlighted Azerbaijan’s significant contributions to the Non-Aligned Movement during the four-year chairmanship of the organisation.

The Speaker noted that Azerbaijan’s chairmanship coincided with a period of grave global challenges, especially COVID-19. “Under President Ilham Aliyev’s leadership, Azerbaijan played an important role in demonstrating solidarity within the Non-Aligned Movement and displaying its practical operation capabilities during the pandemic,” Sahiba Gafarova added.

She also mentioned Azerbaijan’s initiatives to hold an online summit of the Non-Aligned Movement on COVID-19 and a Special session of the UN General Assembly on COVID-19. “At the same time, Azerbaijan helped ensure an equal access to the vaccines and helped those countries which needed help,” the Speaker underlined.

The Speaker of the Milli Majlis said that under Azerbaijani chairmanship, NAM had prioritized strengthening its international role and institutional development. “The emergence of the Non-Aligned Movement Youth Network and Parliamentary Network at the initiative of President Ilham Aliyev was one of the important areas of the institutional development. The Non-Aligned Movement Youth Network was transformed to a Youth Organisation pursuant to the 2019 resolution,” the Speaker underscored.

According to the Speaker of Parliament, the Non-Aligned Movement Youth Organisation (NAMYO) and Parliamentary Network (NAMPN) perform different but complementary functions. "One of them provides an international youth platform whereas the other unites the Non-Aligned Movement Member States’ Parliaments.”

Touching upon the establishment of the NAMPN, Speaker Sahiba Gafarova emphasized that, established on the sidelines of the 143rd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Madrid in 2021, the Parliamentary Network chaired by the Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan has formed its structure, expanded international cooperation and held five conferences in various countries over the past period.

In her concluding remarks, Speaker Sahiba Gafarova emphasized that the NAMYO and the NAMPN, the important legacy of the Azerbaijani chairmanship, are the active bodies serving the future of the Non-Aligned Movement.