Speaker of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova had a meeting with the newly-appointed Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to our country Lu May on 15 May.

Sahiba Gafarova congratulated the Ambassador on the start of her diplomatic tenure in Azerbaijan before broaching the comprehensive interaction between Azerbaijan and China and mentioning the existing successful co-operation not only on the political plane but in other areas as well. She said that the relations between our states have reached the zenith, namely, the level of all-encompassing strategic partnership.

The significance of President Ilham Aliyev’s stat visit to the People’s Republic of China was underlined as the conversation went on; it was stressed that the Joint Statement on the Establishment of a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership signed between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the People's Republic of China stands as further evidence of the high level of our bilateral relations. It was subsequently remarked that President Ilham Aliyev had held a meeting with Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China Zhao Leji during the said state visit and that views were exchanged on the expansion of interparliamentary co-operation at that meeting.

It was stressed then that the parliaments’ connexions are an important component of the relations between our countries and satisfaction was expressed with the advancement of the inter-parliamentary co-operation inclusive of the ties between the friendship groups and parliamentary committees. What else was said was that the Joint Declaration covered inter-parliamentary co-operation matters.

Speaker Sahiba Gafarova mentioned her meeting with Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China Zhao Leji, saying that such contacts promoted a continued expansion of our collaboration.

Next, they talked about the co-operation between Azerbaijan and China in the international arena; the unwavering mutual support of our states for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty was brought up with contentment.

Ambassador Lu May passed on to the Speaker of the Milli Majlis the greetings of Zhao Leji and said she had every intention to make all possible efforts to ensure on-going development of our relations – including between our legislative assemblies – during her diplomatic tenure in our country.

The meeting also had an exchange of views upon other issues of shared interest.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis