BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 15. A regular conference of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Parliamentary Network was held as part of the 146th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Manama (Bahrain) on March 13, Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry told Trend.
The conference, chaired by Speaker of the Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan, and head of the NAM Parliamentary Network Sahiba Gafarova, was attended by members of legislative bodies from more than 60 countries, including speakers of parliaments from more than 20 NAM countries, as well as heads of international parliamentary structures.
Following the results of the conference, a number of important decisions were made, such as the Manama Declaration, the decision to grant observer status to some international parliamentary institutions in the NAM Parliamentary Network and to amend the Charter on the modality of the Non-Aligned Movement Parliamentary Network.
One of the most important outcomes of the Manama Conference was the adoption of a decision to create within the NAM Parliamentary Network a parliamentary group to support initiatives on global recovery in the post-pandemic period, put forward by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan as Chairman of the NAM at the Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement Contact Group on fighting COVID-19.
As part of the Summit, the head of state initiated a call to the UN secretary-general to establish a UN High-Level Panel to provide relevant guidance on the global challenges of supporting small island developing states and African countries, as well as on global recovery from the pandemic.