On February 5, 2019, the Ambassador of the United Mexican States to Azerbaijan Rodrigo Labardini paid a visit to the International Eurasia Press Fund (IEPF) where he met with the President of the organization Umud Mirzayev.

The meeting was also attended by the assistant to Ambassador Gunel Hajiyeva, IEPF Vice-President Ramil Azizov and assistant to the IEPF President Anastasia Lavrina.

The main topic of the meeting was the discussion about current activities of the organization and the Embassy and the possibilities for the establishment of the long-term partnership aimed at the development of the civil societies in both countries.

IEPF President stressed that the Fund is actively cooperating with many prestigious international and local organizations as well as with diplomatic community while working on the implementation of different humanitarian and social projects aiming to support the most vulnerable population suffered from the war, particularly with women and youth.

While talking about Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Umud Mirzayev, once again, expressed his gratitude to Mexican government for the adoption of documents in the Senate of Mexico in 2011 condemning the occupation of Azerbaijani territories by Armenia and recognizing the Khojaly genocide.  

“People from all around the world must know about this tragedy to prevent any similar to happen again” – Umud Mirzayev said.

The Ambassador thanked the IEPF President for the invitation to the office. He stated that the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict itself is an obstacle for the development of the whole region and that it has to be resolved peacefully in accordance with the four resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council.

“It is very clear for me that the conflict should be resolved within Azerbaijan's territorial integrity. For me it is also clear, when somebody talks about occupied territories it means that those territories are not of the occupier” - Rodrigo Labardini said.

Later, Rodrigo Labardini highlighted the impressive achievements in the development of the bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Mexico, including that 2015-2017 trade grew eight times and tourism grew four times. He also said that there is a big potential for strengthening the relations between two countries in 2019 and he is going to work on it.

The sides agreed to manage good partnership and to contribute in more close integration between the civil societies of both countries in different spheres, like tourism, education and culture and etc.

The Ambassador was shown a short movie showing the life of children in the war-affected regions of Azerbaijan, produced in the IEPF’s production studio.

In the end, Rodrigo Labardini gave an exclusive interview to international analytical information gateway Eurasia Diary, operating under the auspices of the IEPF. The interview will be available soon.