No:263/19, Remarks by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan H.E. Elmar Mammadyarov at the Extraordinary Meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Turkic Council
H.E. Elmar Mammadyarov
Fellow Ministers,
Mr. Secretary General,
Excellencies,
It is my pleasure to be here in Budapest to attend the extraordinary meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Turkic Council. After the meeting, we will have the opening ceremony of the Representation Office of the Turkic Council in Budapest, which was initiated by the Prime Minister of Hungary, H.E. Viktor Orban at the last Summit, held in the city of Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan. This initiative and the observer status at the Turkic Council shows Hungary’s strong determination to establish close comprehensive ties with the Turkic Cooperation Organizations and its Member States.
It is a great event to open Representation Office of the Turkic Council in Budapest, in the heart of Europe, which means that the historical Turkic presence in Europe is restored and Hungary will be the noble presenter of the vision of the Turkic world in Europe.
We are confident that this Office will serve as a mechanism not only for elevating the status of ongoing cooperation between Hungary and the Member States, but also will play a crucial role in enhancing Turkic Council’s relations with Hungary, as well as in strengthening ties with European institutions and European Union.
As for the Host Country Agreement and other complementary documents that form the legal basis of the Representation Office, which was recently discussed during the Senior Officials Committee Meeting of the Turkic Council, we are hopeful that these documents will be adopted very soon.
Since the last Summit the events such as the meeting of the Ministers in charge of Media and Information, First Young Leaders Forum in Nakhchivan, the 6th Joint Training program of Junior diplomats which also attended by the diplomats from Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Hungary and Workshop on Authorized Economic Operators in customs sphere were held in Azerbaijan.
As it is known, the 7th Summit of the Turkic Council will be held on 15 October 2019 in Baku. I would like to take this opportunity to emphasize that we are extremely honored to host the 7th Summit, as we consider this to be a special one since it coincides with the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Nakhchivan Agreement on the establishment of the Turkic Council.
Also, the decision of the Republic of Uzbekistan to become a full-fledged member of the Turkic Council at the 7th Summit, as well as the opening of the Representation Office in Hungary on the eve of the Summit are important occasions that are worth mentioning.
I believe that these events are the vivid examples that Turkic Council is in the right track and hopefully Uzbekistan and Hungary are not the last states to attend the activities of the organization.
Dear colleagues,
On this note, I would like to wish a successful work and hope that the discussions will yield fruitful outcomes and recommendations within the course of our meeting.
Thank you.