Rene van der Linden

When the visit of the President of the Senate of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Rene van der Linden to Azerbaijan will take place?

The President of the Senate of the Kingdom of the Netherlands will visit Azerbaijan this week  between September 07-09, 2010 at the invitation of Azerbaijan.

What meetings are scheduled during the visit?

The visit should be seen in the context of the good parliamentary relations between our two countries. The President of the Senate has been invited by the President of the Republic, Mr.Ilham Aliyev, and the Chairman of the Milli Majlis, Mr.Asadov, to visit Azerbaijan.

Meetings are foreseen with the Chairman of the Milli Majlis, Mr.Asadov, as well as with the Committee on Foreign and Interparliamentary relations. There will also be meetings with Government Representatives. The purpose of the visit will be to further strenghtening of the already good bilateral contacts and cooperation in the fields of interparlamentary as well as economic relations, and developing perspectives for co-operation in the field of education:  Dutch higher education institutions are popular among Azerbaijani students.

Will the President of the Senate visit any region of Azerbaijan?

To his regret the President of the Senate will not be able to visit the regions of Azerbaijan.

Is any document expected to be signed between the parliaments of the two countries?

The visit may yield further networks aimed at connecting Azerbaijani authorities and Dutch interested parties with a view to furthering close cooperation in the fields as mentioned above.  The government and interested private parties could then follow-up on these meetings and elaborate specific agreements.

Are there inter-parliamentary friendship groups between Azerbaijan and the Netherlands?

Inter-parliamentary activities between The Netherlands and Azerbaijan have been developing prosperously, both in the context of the Parliamentarian Assembly of the Council of Europe, platform for dialogue and basic values for the pan-european continent as well as bilaterally. Of course there is a Dutch-Azerbaijani friendship group in the Azerbaijani Parliament. The Speakers of the Parliaments also regularly meet at the Conferences of the Speakers of the Parliament.

Last july a group of Dutch Parliamentarians visited Baku in the spirit of sharing best practices and learning about each others culture, politics and other relevant topics.

The frequent visits of Dutch  high-level delegations to Azerbaijan, and vice versa, over the last nine months are real examples of growing mutual interest.

Fatima Sultanova
News.Az