Ilham Aliyev met with WHO Director General in format of videoconference

On the initiative of the Director General of the World Health Organization, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has met with Director General of the organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in the format of a videoconference.

The meeting was also joined by WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge and other senior officials of the organization.

Director General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praised Azerbaijan's assistance to the organization in all areas, including finance, noting that the country's political and moral support of the World Health Organization was very valuable.

President Ilham Aliyev spoke about the work Azerbaijan had done to combat the pandemic, noting the country's contribution to international cooperation in this area. He noted that a special session of the UN General Assembly dedicated to the fight against coronavirus and an extraordinary summit of the Turkic Council had been held at the initiative of Azerbaijan. He noted that on 21 March, the 46th session of the UN Human Rights Council had adopted a resolution on “Ensuring equal, affordable, timely and universal access to vaccines against COVID-19”, initiated by Azerbaijan as the country chairing the Non-Aligned Movement.

Touching upon the importance of combating the pandemic in the world, the head of state said he had made public statements on vaccination, saying that some countries had ordered more vaccines than required, while some were facing serious problems. President Ilham Aliyev noted that discrimination in the distribution of vaccines was disappointing.

Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that 84,000 AstraZeneca vaccines would be sent to Azerbaijan as soon as possible within the COVAX initiative. President Ilham Aliyev expressed his gratitude for that.