The first plenary meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement/UNESCO – Paris Chapter in 2022 was held

The next plenary meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)/UNESCO – Paris Chapter, chaired by Azerbaijan, was held at the UNESCO Headquarters by the organization of our Permanent Delegation to UNESCO.

The plenary meeting of the NAM, chaired by Azerbaijan's Permanent Delegate to UNESCO, Ambassador Elman Abdullayev, was attended by Tamara Rastovac-Siamashvili, Chair of the UNESCO Executive Board, as well as ambassadors and permanent delegates of the Non-Aligned States.

Opening the plenary session, our Permanent Delegate, Ambassador Elman Abdullayev, noted that the fight against COVID-19, which has changed the world in the last two years, continues, and the pandemic has created new challenges and difficulties. As chair of the Non-Aligned Movement, Azerbaijan continues to lead the fight against COVID-19. Our country continues its efforts to make the vaccines safe, effective and accessible to everyone around the world.

Reminding that the Non-Aligned Movement, the world's second largest political platform, has 120 members, the Ambassador said that the NAM has the impressive constituency in terms of numbers and it is impossible to move forward in multilateral area without the support of the NAM. Being at the core of the multilateralism, the NAM has the huge potential. He said that this meeting is an important opportunity to elaborate the perspectives of the cooperation between the NAM and UNESCO. Ambassador noted that 34 of the 58 members of the Executive Board of UNESCO are members of the Non-Aligned Movement.

Then the Chair of the UNESCO Executive Board Tamara Rastovac-Siamashvili delivered her speech. She spoke about the innovations brought to the activities of the Executive Board, the work carried out with the newly elected members of the Board as well as the meetings with representatives of the Secretariat. She stressed that the Non-Aligned Movement, which celebrated its 60^th anniversary in 2021, is a very important platform.

The Plenary focused on the "Non-Aligned Movement First National Model Simulation Conference” that was organized by the Azerbaijani National Chapter of NAM Youth Network at ADA University in Baku. It was emphasized that in his speech Jeyhun Bayramov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan said: “Youth is encouraged to take part in the NAM Youth Network. It will bring innovative solutions, social development, and give a rise to youth networking”. 

It was noted that a three-day NAM Model Simulation Conference simulated a high-level Non-Aligned Movement meeting. Participants offered solutions to global problems by acting as influential members of the NAM.

The participants of the meeting were informed that the representatives of the NAM Youth Network from Azerbaijan organize the meetings with the National Representatives of other NAM Member States in order to discuss targets aimed at youth collaboration.

The Chair reminded that the Government of Azerbaijan has decided to provide scholarships to citizens of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Non-Aligned Movement for the 2022/2023 academic year at prestigious universities in the country.

The Plenary session focused on the activities of our Permanent Delegation, which chairs the Non-Aligned Movement/UNESCO – Paris Chapter. Information was provided on the meetings of the Chair with the Electoral Groups operating in UNESCO as well as the identified priority areas.

The Summary Records of the last plenary session was heard and adopted. It was informed that the Non-Aligned Movement would make a statement at the upcoming 214^th session of the UNESCO Executive Board.

The meeting continued with discussions on the candidacies of the Non-Aligned Movement countries to the UNESCO organs and other issues.