We Contributed Largely To Islamic Solidarity - President Ilham Aliyev

BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 1. We contributed largely to Islamic Solidarity, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said addressing the 31st Arab League Summit in Algiers, reports.

'Relationship between the Arab League and Azerbaijan has special dimension. This summer I had an honor to receive Secretary General Mr. Aboul Gheit in Baku. We had broad discussions about our future cooperation. Since 2006 Azerbaijan is an observer to the organization and we want to expand our cooperation. Today I participate at the Summit as the chair of Non-Aligned Movement but, at the same time, we have very profound relationship with the member states of Arab League. And I am sure that in the coming years our cooperation will grow, we will have new dimension and new dynamics. We pay a special importance to bilateral cooperation with the members of Arab League and we highly value the mutual support and solidarity between us. Azerbaijan is a country which also suffered like Algeria from occupation for 30 years. Our lands were occupied by Armenia, and during all these years of occupation we always felt the support of our Arab brothers, we felt the support of member states of the Organization of Islamic States. Azerbaijan, in its turn, always in all international fora supported our Muslim brothers. We contributed largely to Islamic Solidarity. 2017 was declared in Azerbaijan the year of Islamic Solidarity and we hosted the 4th Islamic Solidarity Games which transformed into a sporting event, into a festival of solidarity and friendship.

As a chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement, Azerbaijan plays an important role on the international arena. The Non-Aligned Movement is the second largest international institution after the United Nations, which unites 120 countries. Since 2019, Azerbaijan is a chair of this institution and we have been elected by a unanimous decision of all member states, which demonstrates their high level of support and respect to our position and our policy. Our chairmanship was extended again by a unanimous decision until the end of 2023 and we consider it as another sign of appreciation of our policy. Our chairmanship coincided with the COVID-19 and we took a very proactive stand on that. Azerbaijan provided financial and humanitarian assistance to more than 80 countries with respect to coronavirus. We organized a Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement, we initiated a Special Session of the UN General Assembly devoted to COVID-19, which was held in December 2020. All these initiatives had one objective-the objective to help the countries, which are in need, to help the countries and to mobilize resources, and to help the countries, which cannot afford to acquire vaccines. As you remember, dear colleagues, at the beginning of the pandemic, the access to vaccines was the most critical issue. Some developed countries of the West were acquiring the number of vaccines 5-10 times more than they needed, while countries which did not have resources had to suffer. So, Azerbaijan was very vocal against vaccine nationalism, against unfair distribution of vaccines and that strengthened the support of the Non-Aligned Movement to our position. We are planning to organize a Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement next March, and I, using this opportunity, would like to invite the members of Arab League, the heads of state and government to participate in the Summit,' the head of state said.

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