Speaker of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova met on 21 February with Chairman of the Consultative Council of the Sultanate of Oman Khalid bin Hilal Al-Muawali who is in our country for the 14^th plenary session of the Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA) in Baku.

Speaker Sahiba Gafarova told the Chairman of the Consultative Council that she was glad to welcome him in our country and proceeded to say that the religious and cultural values shared by our peoples laid a solid foundation for the progress of the two countries’ relationship. The existence of sound opportunities to continue advancing the inter-state relations was mentioned as well.

As she was remarking upon the role of parliamentary diplomacy in the progress of inter-state relations, the Speaker of the Milli Majlis also touched upon the possibility of deepening the ties between our legislative assemblies. As Sahiba Gafarova pointed out, our legislatures’ co-operation and joint activities in international organisations were in the interests of both sides.

The double standards and Islamophobic tendencies present in the modern world were subjected to criticism in the course of the meeting. Speaker Sahiba Gafarova said that the Azerbaijani lands had remained captured by Armenia for 30 years during which there had been no action on the international resolutions demanding immediate and unconditional de-occupation of the Azerbaijani lands. Our country liberated her lands using her own prowess in 2020 in the end. Mrs Gafarova also told the guest about the restoration and construction work under way in the de-occupied territories.

The Chairman of the Consultative Council of the Sultanate of Oman voiced appreciation of the generous hospitality extended to him before saying that that was his first visit to Azerbaijan and that the capital city of the country, Baku, had left the delegation led by him with pleasant impressions. The guest then offered an opinion to the effect that the positive political links that exist between our countries generated fine opportunities to continue broadening the relations in many areas including in terms of boosting the volumes of trade and furthering the advance of the links in tourism. Mr Al-Muawali said also that the Omani side were keen on deepening the inter-legislature co-operation further.

Besides, the meeting saw an exchange of views upon other matters of mutual interest.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis