No:401/20, Information of the Press Service Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan

As it is known, during the online summit of the Contact Group of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) member states on Combating the COVID-19 pandemic on May 4, 2020, the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan put forward an initiative to convene the 31st Special Session of the UN General Assembly dedicated to the fight against COVID-19, and this initiative was supported by the overwhelming majority of UN member states.

The Special session of the UN General Assembly dedicated to the COVID-19 pandemic was convened on July 10, 2020, and relevant decisions on the governing bodies of the special session were
adopted. The Permanent Representatives of Azerbaijan and Canada to the United Nations have been appointed by the President of the General Assembly as co-facilitators to carry out the complex work on the adoption of a resolution defining the modalities of the special session, and within 3 months intensive and comprehensive negotiations were held with the participation of 193 UN member states.

On November 5, 2020, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on "Special Session of the General Assembly in response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic" in its plenary session.

In accordance with the resolution, on the basis of the initiative put forward by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan on behalf of the member states of the Non-Aligned Movement, it was decided to convene a special session of the UN General Assembly on December 3-4 of this year, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, at the level of Heads of State and Government. As part of the opening of this significant gathering, consisting of an opening segment, a general debate, a joint special presentation by the relevant UN agencies and closing segment, along with the President of the UN General Assembly, the Secretary-General, the President of the Economic and Social Council and the President of the Security Council, the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mr. Ilham Aliyev is expected to deliver a speech on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement in its capacity as the chairman.

We would like to note that Armenia, which opposed from the very beginning the initiative to convene a special session on combating COVID-19, one of the most important issues on the international agenda, and at a time when the world is suffering from the pandemic, to the end tried to create obstacles to this initiative and took steps to prevent the Chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement from speaking at the opening segment according to the resolution. Again, Armenia faced a firm position of the international community, and its attempt was rejected.

At present, the convening of a special session of the UN General Assembly upon the initiative of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan with the aim of combating the unprecedented and multilateral effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which seriously threatens health, safety and well-being in the world, is of exceptional importance in terms of conducting the global fight against the pandemic based on unity, solidarity and multilateral cooperation. This is another bright victory of the visionary humanistic foreign policy pursued by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan.