Chairman of the National Council of the Slovak Republic Boris Kollár visited Azerbaijan

Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova met on 13 June the delegation led by Chairman of the National Council of the Slovak Republic Boris Kollár, who was in Azerbaijan on an official visit.

First, there was a tête-à-tête to talk over the two-way interstate and inter-parliamentary relations.

Then, there was an expanded meeting at which Sahiba Gafarova gave the Slovak visitors a warm welcome and described their coming to Azerbaijan as a manifestation of the amity between our countries. She also remembered her own visit to Slovakia last year and underlined the importance of the conversations she had had there. It is hoped, according to Mrs Gafarova, that the meetings to be held during the current visit of the speaker of the Slovak parliament to Azerbaijan will bring about deeper and broader bilateral relations. In general, Mrs Gafarova added, conversations held during high-status delegations’ visits are central to the progress of the relations. Azerbaijan and Slovakia have to date signed a number of documents encompassing the political, economic, trading, humanitarian and other topicalities and forming the legal frameworks for our interaction.

As she was highlighting the special place parliaments have in the system of inter-state relations, Sahiba Gafarova underscored the importance of reciprocal visits of speakers and members of parliaments for the furtherance of bilateral co-operation. It is laudable that friendship groups function in both sides’ legislatures because those groups keep up the on-going experience and information exchange, in the opinion of Mrs Gafarova.

There are fine opportunities to set yet higher standards for our interaction in such international entities as the PACE, the OSCE PA, the NATO PA and the Inter-Parliamentary Union, according to the leader of the Azerbaijani parliament.

Mrs Gafarova reiterated that the current visit of the Slovak delegation is going to turn a leaf in our inter-parliamentary connexions.

The Speaker of the National Council of the Slovak Republic Boris Kollár thanked for the kind welcome and hospitality before voicing satisfaction with the visit to Azerbaijan and the meetings held here. Slovakia, he said, attached a great importance to furthering its relations with Azerbaijan whilst the growth in our political, economic and humanitarian connexions served the common interest, and the on-going deepening of the inter-parliamentary links had a benevolent influence on our interaction in other fields.

As regards the trip to the liberated provinces of Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan’s cultural capital of Shusha, the Slovak parliament’s speaker voiced the high opinion he had formed of the restoration and rebuilding work going on there. He emphasized the importance of demining in this context.

Concerning the opportunities to deepen the co-operation with Azerbaijan, the fruit that those efforts are bound to bear will serve the well-being of our two nations, in the opinion of Mr. Kollár.

Other topics of shared interest were discussed as the conversation went on.

Source of the text and photo: Chair of Azerbaijan’s Milli Majlis meets with Speaker of National Council of Slovak Republic (apa.az)