IPA CIS Chairperson and President of PA CE exchanged views on the issues of the current international agenda

Chairperson of the IPA CIS Council, Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko met with PA CE President Pedro Agramunt in Strasbourg in the margins of the Conference of Speakers of CE Parliaments.

Vice Speaker of the Federation Council Ilyas Umakhanov, Chair of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs Konstantin Kosachev and IPA CIS Secretary General Alexey Sergeev took part in the meeting.

"We understand the importance of parliamentary diplomacy and believe that PA CE can become a unifying forum for all the 47 CE member states. We need to join efforts to build a safe Europe without dividing lines, discrimination, economically vibrant and prosperous", said Valentina Matvienko.

Valentina Matvienko suggested resuming cooperation between PA CE and IPA CIS. She mentioned that the IPA CIS was going to celebrate its 25^th anniversary and voiced the initiative to host a joint conference on combating terrorism in March 2017.

Earlier, Chairperson of the IPA CIS Council, Speaker of the Federation Council met with members of the PA CE Presidential Committee – representatives of the Assembly's political groups.

According to Valentina Matvienko, it is necessary to find the approaches enabling all the CE members to continue working within PA CE.