BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 20. UN Resident Coordinator in Azerbaijan Vladanka Andreeva has expressed her gratitude to Azerbaijan for holding a conference of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) on "Advancing Women's Rights and Empowerment" during her speech at the event, TurkicWorld reports.

"Gender equality is an important step towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. We are now in a very transformational phase. This conference will be a new opportunity for women in terms of the future," she added.

The conference is being held in Baku under the joint organization of Azerbaijan (current NAM chair), Uganda, and Uzbekistan (future NAM chairs), on the basis of initiatives announced by President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev at the ministerial meeting of the NAM Coordination Bureau in July this year.