Azerbaijan, China reaffirm commitment to comprehensive strategic partnership PHOTO

Speaker of Azerbaijan's Milli Majlis (Parliament) Sahiba Gafarova met on July 21 with a Chinese delegation led by Kang Shuai, Deputy Director of the Department of Information and Research at the International Liaison Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, during the delegation's visit to Azerbaijan.

The development dynamics of the Azerbaijani-Chinese relations and the successes achieved in them were mentioned in detail at the meeting, Caliber.Az reports, citing Milli Majlis.

They also discussed issues concerning strengthening interparliamentary and interparty co‑operation further and expanding the economic, trading, educational, cultural and humanitarian fields – including the youth affairs.

Welcoming the delegation of the Communist Party of China, Speaker Sahiba Gafarova stressed that the Azerbaijani-Chinese co-operation that has been advancing dynamically across all the areas over the past years lies on the friendly ties between the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mr Ilham Aliyev and Chairman of the People’s Republic of China Mr Xi Jinping.

As was mentioned, Azerbaijan has always supported the One-China Policy and the territorial integrity of China unequivocally. We, too, highly appreciate China’s support for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of our country.

The Speaker of the Milli Majlis observed that the visits of President Ilham Aliyev to the People’s Republic of China in 2025, especially, the signing of the Joint Declaration on the Establishment of a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between Azerbaijan and China during his state visit, became a milestone in the development of the bilateral relations.

Sahiba Gafarova remarked that interparliamentary ties are an important component of Azerbaijani-Chinese relations. She spoke about her meetings with Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Zhao Leji during her working visit to China this year and with Head of the International Liaison Department of the CPC Central Committee Liu Jianchao who visited Azerbaijan last year. The successful continuation of parliamentary dialogue and co‑operation within international organisations was mentioned as well.

The Speaker of the Milli Majlis mentioned the successful advancement of the inter-party co-operation on par with the high-level political dialogue based on mutual trust between Azerbaijan and China. She emphasised that the effective relations established between the New Azerbaijan Party and the Communist Party of China as well as the signed Memorandum of Understanding contribute substantially to the continuing expansion of this co-operation.

Deputy Director of the Department of Information and Research of the International Liaison Department of the CPC CC Kang Shuai said that the relations between China and Azerbaijan have been developing successfully over the past years whereas the high-level relations formed between the leaders of the two countries play an important role in the strengthening of that co-operation.

Kang Shuai mentioned with contentment the visit of Speaker of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova to the People’s Republic of China and the meetings she had held, and praised highly her support for the progress of the relations between Azerbaijan and China – including that of the inter-party dialogue.

Deputy Chairman of the New Azerbaijan Party and Head of the Central Staff of the party Tahir Budagov broached at the meeting the significance of the political dialogue and inter-parliamentary co-operation in the system of inter-state relations. He also stated his views as to the development prospects of the co-operation between the New Azerbaijan Party and the Communist Party of China.

The Ambassador of China to Azerbaijan Lu Mei shared thoughts about various aspects of the relations between Azerbaijan and China.

The meeting also had an exchange of opinions regarding other matters of shared interest.

By Aghakazim Guliyev