Baku, Azerbaijan, July 10
Trend:
Working Group of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) on fighting COVID-19 pandemic held the first online meeting, Trend reports referring to Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry.
The working group was established on the initiative of NAM’s current chairman, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev on May 4, 2020 during a summit in the form of a video conference on combating the COVID-19 pandemic of NAM’s Contact Group. The group was created on the basis of the relevant paragraphs of the Joint Declaration of the Heads of State and Government of the Movement’s member countries adopted at the meeting.
The group was commissioned to create a unified information database reflecting the medical, social and humanitarian needs of the NAM member countries.
According to the ministry, during the meeting, the Azerbaijani delegation chairing the Working Group informed the participants about the work done over the past period to form the group and prepare the unified information database.
The meeting was attended by representatives of many member states of NAM, as well as Director-General Envoy for Multilateral Affairs of the World Health Organization (WHO) Michele Boccoz and Head of WHO’s Operations Support and Logistics Department Paul Molinaro.
"In their speeches, the WHO representatives expressed their gratitude to Azerbaijan’s president for international efforts in the fight against COVID-19, including the permanent support of WHO activities, welcomed the activities of the Working Group created on the president’s initiative,” the ministry said. “The representatives also noted that resting upon the relevant information provided by Azerbaijan chairing the NAM, WHO began to provide assistance to the NAM member states. They also expressed satisfaction about the possibility of further cooperation with the working group in this direction.”
The ministry stressed that the NAM member states participating in the meeting thanked Azerbaijan for their intensive activities in the field of combating COVID-19 as the organization’s chairman and informed about the work done in their countries in the fight against the pandemic.
Summing up the meeting, the participants scheduled next steps related to the working group activities.