Chairperson of the IPA CIS Council meets with President of Inter-Parliamentary Union

Chairperson of the IPA CIS Council, Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko met with President of the Inter-Parliamentary Unin Saber Chowdhury.

At the meeting, Valentina Matvienko stressed that the IPU exemplifies a structure working for a fair peace order, strict compliance with international law and resolution of crises through peaceful means. She also emphasized that the decision of the IPU Governing Council to raise the status of the IPA CIS at the IPU to the level of associate membership would facilitate solutions to issues of peace and security in the Eurasian continent.

The parties also discussed making the Russian language an official language of the IPU which "woould step up the efforts of the Russian Federation within the IPU and simplify access of Russian-speaking communities to the information about the IPU's work".

Valentina Matvienko welcomed the decision of the IPU Standing Committee on Peace and International Security to sponsor the resolution on the role of parliaments in preventing external intervention in the internal affairs of sovereign states.

"We look forward to an active engagement with the IPU, believing it to be a credible forum for inter-parliamentary dialogue. We support IPU's intention to actively involve national parliaments in addressing global development challenges including crises mitigation", said Valentina Matvienko.

IPU President expressed the opinion that the IPU works more efficiently with an active involvement of Russian MPs. He noted the need for enhancing cooperation of regional parliamentary bodies and the IPU's participation in hosting various regional events providing opportunities to discuss a wide range of issues including combating terrorism.

Vice-Speaker of the Federation Council Ilyas Umakhanov and Chair of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs Konstantin Kosachev attended the meeting.