Mehriban Aliyeva met at UNESCO headquarters with Director General of the Organization Irina Bokova

April 28, Mehriban Aliyeva, First Lady of Azerbaijan, President of Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Goodwill Ambassador of UNESCO and ISESCO, MP, met at UNESCO headquarters in Paris with newly elected Director General of the Organization Irina Bokova.

Mehriban Aliyeva was warmly welcomed by Irina Bokova.

M.Aliyeva congratulated I.Bokova on her election to the post of the UNESCO Director General and wished her successes. 

The UNESCO Director General expressed satisfaction with close cooperation of UNESCO with Azerbaijan. Having appreciated activity of Mehriban Aliyeva as the Goodwill Ambassador of UNESCO, Irina Bokova underlined her interest in further cooperation with the First Lady of Azerbaijan. The Director General expressed confidence that thanks to efforts of Mehriban Aliyeva relations of Azerbaijan with UNESCO will have further development. 

Having informed of a number of projects recently prepared in the sphere of education, the UNESCO Director General said she wants Mehriban Aliyeva to partake in them. Mrs Irina Bokova marked that UNESCO gives great attention to development of the secondary education system and is going to carry out a number of actions. The main goal of projects, according to Bokova, is to provide secondary education to girls all over the world, in particular in the African countries. At her words, the UNESCO headquarters is planning to carry out certain actions linked to the mentioned projects. Wishing participation in this event of Mehriban Aliyeva, who has huge merits in implementation of many important projects in the education sphere in Azerbaijan, Irina Bokova expressed hope that the First Lady of Azerbaijan will support the initiative.

Mehriban Aliyeva accepted the offer, noting she will certainly support the projects.

Especially marking the value of the international actions on intercultural and inter-civilization dialogue carried out in Azerbaijan at the initiative of President of Heydar Aliyev Foundation Mehriban Aliyeva, the UNESCO Director General thanked the Goodwill Ambassador and wished continuation of such initiatives. 

Irina Bokova twice underlined that between UNESCO and Azerbaijan there are close connections, marking activity in this area of President Ilham Aliyev. The Director General of UNESCO told that Azerbaijan is one of the promptly developing countries in the world.

Noting that Azerbaijan and UNESCO have established close relationship, Mehriban Aliyeva told that Azerbaijan stands ready to actively participate in all actions of UNESCO in any area, in particular in the sphere of education and culture.

Mehriban Aliyeva invited the Director General of UNESCO to visit Azerbaijan. Irina Bokova accepted the invitation, stating she will visit Azerbaijan in the near future.