Parliament speakers of Serbia, Azerbaijan sign MoU

BELGRADE - The parliament speakers of Serbia and Azerbaijan, Vladimir Orlic and Sahiba Gafarova, signed a MoU between the two parliaments on Thursday.

They agreed the memorandum would encourage a strengthening of overall parliamentary cooperation at all levels and that it reconfirmed the friendship between Serbia and Azerbaijan.

During a meeting with Gafarova, Orlic said her visit to Belgrade was historic and that it was especially important that it was taking place shortly after their meeting during his visit to Baku for a special session of the Azerbaijani parliament.

The parties confirmed that a recent exchange of visits by Presidents Aleksandar Vucic and Ilham Aliyev and their mutual respect had lent a strong impetus to boosting overall bilateral ties and strategic cooperation.

Gafarova said bilateral relations were seeing dynamic development and were based on traditional friendship and mutual understanding.

She confirmed that Azerbaijan continued to support the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Serbia.

Orlic expressed gratitude for Azerbaijan's stance on the issue.

"I would especially like to thank Azerbaijan for its principled stance in a recent vote on launching the procedure of reviewing the so-called Kosovo's application for CoE membership, which we see as an act of sincere friendship," said Orlic, who took the opportunity to inform Gafarova of the extremely grave situation in Kosovo-Metohija, daily threats to the security of Serbs and an usurpation of authority in Serb-majority municipalities, which he said indicated clearly Pristina's intent to cause clashes and an open conflict.