Azerbaijan has assumed the chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe as the council held its 124th session in the Austrian capital of Vienna.

Chaired by Minister for Foreign Affairs of Austria and Chairman of the Committee of Ministers Sebastian Kurz, the session featured discussions on the current situation in Ukraine, the policy of the Council of Europe towards neighboring regions, ways of securing the long-term effectiveness of the system of the European Convention on Human Rights, as well as the cooperation with the European Union.

Secretary General of the European Council Thorbjorn Jagland made a report on state of democracy, human rights and the rule of law in Europe.

At the end of the session, Minister Kurz presented the stocktaking of Austria’s chairmanship over the past six months. He then announced that the chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers passed to Azerbaijani Minister of Foreign Affairs Elmar Mammadyarov.

The Azerbaijani FM laid out the priorities of his country’s chairmanship.

“Azerbaijan will be privileged to take the lead at the Committee of Ministers over the next 6 months. During the whole period of our chairmanship, we will spare no efforts to further advance the objectives the Council of Europe has been pursuing since its inception.”

The FM said: “To this end, we have taken full account of the challenges encountered by the Member States and current political agenda of the Organization while identifying our chairmanship priorities, which I will present this afternoon in more detail.”

Azerbaijan’s chairmanship of the Committee of Minister will officially start on May 14 and end in November when the country will hand it over to Belgium.

Bakudaily.az