No:191/23, Press release on the meeting of Minister Jeyhun Bayramov with Rita Bissoonauth, Head of the UNESCO Liaison Office in Addis Ababa, and Secretaries-General of the National Commissions for UNESCO of a number of African countries
04 April 2023 16:45
On 4 April 2023, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov met with Rita Bissoonauth, Head of the UNESCO Liaison Office in Addis Ababa, and the Secretaries-General of the National Commissions for UNESCO of the Republic of Guinea, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Niger, Benin, Togo, Burkina Faso, Equatorial Guinea, Djibouti and Gabon, who are visiting Azerbaijan to participate in the training jointly organized by ADA University, the National Commission of the Republic of Azerbaijan for UNESCO and the Institute for Development and Diplomacy.
At the meeting, issues on the multilateral cooperation agenda between Azerbaijan and African countries, including within the framework of UNESCO, were discussed.
Minister Jeyhun Bayramov stated that Azerbaijan’s Chairmanship of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) contributed to the further development of relations, and recalled that during the Summit of the NAM Contact Group on the fight against COVID-19 held in Baku in March of this year, Azerbaijan announced a global call on 2 funds to support the post-pandemic recovery of Africa and small island developing states.
Stating that our country attaches importance to cooperation with the United Nations (UN) and its specialized agencies, Minister Jeyhun Bayramov noted that, in this regard, Azerbaijan closely cooperates with UNESCO as a donor country in the fields of education, culture, sports and science. Confidence was expressed that the training program held for the Secretaries-General of the National Commissions for UNESCO of African countries will be useful in further expanding cooperation in this direction.
Minister Jeyhun Bayramov stated that Azerbaijan, as a member of the Global Education Coalition during the COVID-19 pandemic, supported education projects implemented in various countries of the world, and noted that promoting activities aimed especially at girls’ education in a number of countries is one of the priority directions.
Minister Jeyhun Bayramov also informed the training participants about the situation that emerged in the region after the 44-day Patriotic War, the large-scale restoration and reconstruction works carried out by Azerbaijan in the region in the post-conflict period, and the peace process with Armenia. It was underscored that despite the military-political provocations committed by Armenia in the post-conflict period, obstructing the peace process, Azerbaijan is determined to advance the peace agenda.
Rita Bissoonauth, Head of the UNESCO Liaison Office in Addis Ababa, expressed gratitude for the organization of the training program intended for the Secretaries-General of the National Commissions for UNESCO of 10 African countries. It was emphasized that the said training program will play an important role in expanding relations between Azerbaijan and African countries within the framework of UNESCO.
