First Vice-president Mehriban Aliyeva receives participants of the Baku Sitting of the Council of CIS Countries’ Interior Ministers

First Vice-president of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva received participants of the sitting of the Council of CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) Countries’ Interior Ministers held in Baku, July 20.

Expressing her delight in holding a regular sitting of the Council of CIS Countries’ Interior Ministers in Azerbaijan, Mehriban Aliyeva noted that this is already the fifth time that the Council’s assembly is taking place in our country.

Underscoring Azerbaijan’s being one of the most active members of the CIS, Mehriban Aliyeva said the primary duty was to advance multilateral cooperation in various spheres, including public and political, economic, humanitarian, and to ensure security. She noted that the Council of CIS Interior Ministers has been implementing significant duties towards ensuring citizens’ leading normal and quiet lives. Saying “Stability, tranquillity and supremacy of law are among major preconditions in every state’s advancement”, Mehriban Aliyeva emphasized that the Council’s works have been attached great importance in our country, bringing to attention that Azerbaijan has been making contribution to ensuring the region’s security. Describing the low level of crime in our country, detection of most of the crimes and thirty percent decline in the number of grave and especially grave crimes as a positive case, Mehriban Aliyeva expressed a hope the Council’s work would contribute to strengthening of this tendency further.

Saying that the Council of the CIS Countries Interior Ministers was a very good platform for an efficient exchange of information, bringing down risks to minimum, and struggling against organized crime, drug trafficking, terror and extremism, Mehriban Aliyeva underscored the necessity of cooperation to fight against new threats and challenges generated by globalization.

Greeting Interpol’s Secretary General Jürgen Stock, Mehriban Aliyeva congratulated him on the appointment to the office. She expressed a hope that Interpol would provide their support in future to ensuring security in the region.

Mehriban Aliyeva said: “I would like to draw your attention to the facts of illegal operation of a number of foreign companies in Azerbaijan’s Daghlyg Garabagh region. By now, 177 foreign companies carrying out illegal economic activities in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan have been detected. Moreover, 710 foreign nationals have visited the occupied territories. Daghlyg Garabagh is an inseparable part of Azerbaijan, and our country’s territorial integrity has been recognized by the whole world. Therefore, such violations are tantamount to gross violation of the Azerbaijani legislation. In addition, there are facts about using these territories for growing drugs and their further trafficking, which causes, without a doubt, great concern. Either committed by foreign companies or individuals, such acts mean gross violation of the Azerbaijani legislation. Our state has been taking and will take necessary actions to stop and prevent these acts from happening. Of course, we very much rely on Interpol’s support in this. I want to once more thank you for sharing your expertise with us and for our joint work, feeling sure that we would continue our successful cooperation in future too.”

Mehriban Aliyeva once more highly appreciated the work of the Council of the CIS Countries’ Interior Ministers on behalf of the state of Azerbaijan, wishing successes in the Council’s work.

Russian Interior Minister, chairperson of the Council of the CIS Countries’ Interior Ministers Vladimir Kolokoltsev said that a number of important issues would be discussed in this sitting of the Council, and significant decisions would be taken. Emphasizing the significance of joint efforts, Vladimir Kolokoltsev brought to attention that the decisions taken serve ensuring citizens’ security.