Ilham Aliyev received Director-General of UN Office at Geneva

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva Tatiana Valovaya.

Tatiana Valovaya said she is happy to represent the United Nations at the Ministerial Meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement Coordinating Bureau, and congratulated the head of state on Azerbaijan`s successful chairmanship of the NAM. She hailed the successful development of cooperation between the United Nations Office at Geneva, the UN specialized agencies in Geneva and Azerbaijan.

Tatiana Valovaya highly appreciated Azerbaijan`s support for the development of the Women and the Sustainable Development Goals initiative of the UN, and described President Ilham Aliyev`s initiative to establish a new Sustainable Development Goal on humanitarian demining as very valuable and important. She stressed the possibility and importance of holding discussions on this matter together with the member states within the UN.

The head of state noted that Azerbaijan’s Non-Aligned Movement Chairmanship places a great emphasis on institutionalization of the Movement and that Azerbaijan attaches huge importance on multilateralism. The Azerbaijani leader highlighted the work done by Azerbaijan to institutionalize the Movement and the country’s initiatives to establish the Parliamentary Network and Youth Organization. President Ilham Aliyev underlined that Azerbaijan came forward with an initiative to create the Non-Aligned Movement women platform.

The head of state pointed out that Azerbaijan had faced the mine contamination in the territories liberated from Armenia’s occupation, stressing the importance of enshrining the mine removal as the Sustainable Development Goal too. President Ilham Aliyev said Azerbaijan had initiated the establishment of a Like-Minded Group of Mine-Affected Countries of the Non-Aligned Movement, saying the country effectively utilizes modern technologies in humanitarian demining. The Azerbaijani leader underlined that over 300 Azerbaijanis had been killed and badly wounded by landmines since November 10, 2020.

The meeting also saw discussion on the importance of increasing the existing quota for Azerbaijan citizens working within the UN system.