Azeri speaker invites Russian parliamentarians to assume consolidated position at next OSCE PA session
MOSCOW. June 5 (Interfax) - Azeri parliamentary speaker Ogtay Asadov said he hopes the Azeri and Russian delegations to an OSCE Parliamentary Assembly session in Baku on June 27 would assume a consolidated position, including on the most sensitive issues.
"I hope the Azeri and Russian parties will assume the same platform during this visit," Asadov said at a meeting with Russian State Duma speaker Sergei Naryshkin at the State Duma on Thursday.
Asadov is leading a Milli Majlis (the Azeri National Assembly) delegation visiting Moscow.
Baku is closely watching the development of the situation in Ukraine and in the Middle East, Asadov said. "We understand Russia's aspirations," he said with reference to the conflict regions.
June will in fact be a "Russia month" in Azerbaijan, as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, and a Russian parliamentary delegation led by Naryshkin plan to visit Baku in this month.
"Azerbaijan attaches huge significance to the development of bilateral relations," Asadov said, adding that Azeri-Russian relations are relations of strategic partnership.
Naryshkin described contacts between the Russian and Azeri parliaments as an element of a broader political dialogue between the two countries. "And parliamentary interaction creates a comfortable atmosphere for cooperation in all areas, including political, trade-economic, and humanitarian ones," he said.
Moscow is interested in enlarging and strengthening strategic partnerships between Azerbaijan and Russia, Naryshkin said. As for parliamentarians, they are ready to make their contribution to the development of this partnership; "we have every opportunity and every tool of inter-parliamentary interaction for this," he said.