Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov attended the International Donors' Conference for Albania in Brussels

On February 17, 2020, at the invitation of the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von Der Leyen, a delegation led by Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov attended the International Donors' Conference for Albania in Brussels. At the conference, the President of the European Commission, the Prime Minister of Albania and the President of the Council of the European Union made opening remarks, as well as high-level delegations of many states and international organizations delivered their statements.

Speaking at the conference, Minister Elmar Mammadyarov noted that Albania is a very important partner of Azerbaijan, and the most illustrative example of this is the numerous visits of the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, to Baku to facilitate the strategic Southern Gas Corridor connecting the Caspian region, in particular, Azerbaijan with Georgia, Turkey, Greece, Albania and ending in Italy, and meetings during these visits with the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.

Minister Elmar Mammadyarov noted that Azerbaijan was among the first countries to provide humanitarian assistance to Albania in the aftermath of the tragic earthquake in Albania and that our country provided assistance to Albania in the amount of half a million euros. He brought to the attention of the conference participants a new pledge of another half a million euros to be provided to the Government and people of Albania.

The Minister noted that in the modern history of Azerbaijan, solidarity with people in need is absolutely normal for our country and drew attention to the fact that from the first days of restoration of independence our people suffered a lot because of the aggressive policy of the neighboring state and the military conflict, which has made more than 1 million refugees and internally displaced persons in Azerbaijan.

But today Azerbaijan has become a Participant of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and our country has provided humanitarian aid and development assistance to more than 100 countries of the world, Minister Mammadyarov expressed confidence that this assistance will continue in the future.

It should be noted that Azerbaijan was the only country to support Albania in its difficult situation among the countries of the former Soviet area.