Meeting of the IPA CIS Council takes place in the Tavricheskiy Palace

The meeting brought together the heads of parliamentary delegations to the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly: Speaker of the Milli Mejlis of the Azerbaijan Republic Oktay Asadov, Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia Alen Simonyan, Speaker of the Council of Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus Mikhail Myasnikovitch, Speaker of the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan Dariga Nazarbayeva, Speaker of the Jogorku Kenesh of the Kyrghyz Republic Dastanbek Dzhumabekov, Deputy Secretary General of the IPA CIS Council – Plenipotentiary Representative of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova Ion Lipciu, Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Valentina Matvienko, Deputy Speaker of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Ivan Melnikov, Speaker of the Majlisi Namoyandagon of the Majlisi Oli of the Republic of Tajikistan Shukurjon Zukhurov, Speaker of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan Nigmatilla Yuldashev, as well as Deputy Speaker of the Mejlis of the Republic of Turkmenistan Kasymguly Babaev.

Commencing the meeting, Valentina Matvienko commended the joint activities of the parliamentarians on the preparation of the Conference on Countering International Terrorism, taking place in the Tavricheskiy Palace. This event builds on the discussion of 2017 in a wider format, when a similar conference was co-organized by the IPA CIS and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Further, the meeting elected the new Chairperson of the IPA CIS Council. Following the results of the voting, Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Valentina Matvienko was re-elected as IPA CIS Council Chairperson. The Council members unanimously approved the nomination of Dmitriy Kobitskiy, put forward by Valentina Matvienko, to the position of the Secretary General – Head of the IPA CIS Council Secretariat, who had temporally executed the office.

The Council meeting also discussed participation of the IPA CIS international observers in the monitoring of elections in the IPA CIS member nations. Member of the IPA CIS Observer Team, Member of the Committee of the Jogorku Kenesh of the Kyrgyz Republic Foreign Affairs, Defense and Security Maksat Sabirov presented the results of the early elections to the National Assembly to the Republic of Armenia. Coordinator of the IPA CIS Observer Team, Deputy Speaker of the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan Bektas Beknazarov reported on the participation of the IPA CIS international observers in the monitoring of the parliamentary elections in the Republic of Moldova.

In the run-up to the 75^th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, the Council discussed the preparation of relevant celebration activities. Deputy Chair of the IPA CIS Permanent Commission on Political Issues and International Cooperation, Chairman of the Committee of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on International Affairs Konstantin Kosachev presented the relevant information.

At the end of the event, the members of the Council drew the outcomes of the IPA CIS activities in 2018 and decided on drafting the Long-Term Model Law-Making Plan for the Commonwealth of Independent States for the forthcoming period.