The 1st session of the Organizing Committee of the VI World Conference of Speakers of Parliaments started its work at the headquarters of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Geneva on May 16, AzVision.az reports citing the Azerbaijani Parliament.

Speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament Sahiba Gafarova addressed the meeting.

Referring to the expansion of the scale of parliamentary diplomacy and cooperation in comparison with previous years, she noted that parliaments cooperate both bilaterally and in international organizations, creating new mechanisms of interaction. In this aspect, it was emphasized that the Inter-Parliamentary Union is a very important unifying platform.

Stating that the cooperation of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, especially with the UN, is a clear indicator of the significant level achieved in the sphere of parliamentary cooperation, the Speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament expressed confidence that the issues of strengthening the practical cooperation between the UN and the Inter-Parliamentary Union will be considered at the next conference. She said that cooperation within these frameworks should be more systematic, institutional, and practical. This will certainly raise the level of parliament's participation in the fight against common challenges.

Emphasizing the importance of reforms at the UN, Gafarova said: "Given the challenges our world faces, multilateral mechanisms play an important role in advancing joint efforts and solutions. But we all recognize that these mechanisms, as well as the multilateral system, need to be stronger, more effective, and inclusive. Unfortunately, the current situation does not fully meet our requirements."

The Speaker of Parliament stated that there is consensus for reforms to make the UN, including the Security Council, more effective, relying on the multilateral system. Of course, there is a lot of discussion about what these reforms should look like, but we have not yet seen real solutions for their realization, she said. In this regard, Gafarova urged the Inter-Parliamentary Union to develop new ideas and proposals for reforms in the UN and take them into account in further work.

The meeting of the organizing committee continued with speeches of other chairpersons of parliaments.

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