The meeting of the IPA CIS Council was held in St. Petersburg

During the meeting the members of the Council considered a number of issues concerning the activities of the Assembly and the IPA CIS Council Secretariat reviewed the organization's work in 2017 and discussed the plan of activity for the forthcoming period.

Speaker of the Chamber of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus Vladimir Andreychenko reported on the item Chairperson of the IPA CIS Council. He proposed the appointment to Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Valentina Matvienko recalling that she has been leading the Council of the Assembly since 2011. Vladimir Andreychenko noted that Valentina Matvienko made a great contribution to the development of interparliamentary cooperation and increased the IPA CIS authority.

Valentina Matvienko was unanimously reelected Chairperson of the IPA CIS Council.

Yuriy Osipov was appointed Secretary General of the IPA CIS Council.

One of the main issues on the agenda was the issue of the implementation of IPA CIS model laws in the CIS legal frameworks. The monitoring confirmed the relevance of the documents of the Interparliamentary Assembly for the legal systems of the Commonwealth states.

Coordinator of the IPA CIS Observer Team, Deputy Chair, Committee of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on Defense Viktor Zavarzin informed the Council about the participation of IPA CIS international observers in the monitoring of the presidential election in the Kyrgyz Republic.

Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Security of Mazhilis of Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan Mukhtar Yerman reported on monitoring of the election of the President of the Russian Federation by IPA CIS observers noting the high level of organization and holding of these elections.

Yuriy Osipov reported on the work of the IPA CIS observer mission at the elections of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The delegation was led by Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Ilyas Umakhanov.

First Deputy Chairman of the CIS Executive Committee Viktor Guminskiy reported on the ratification and implementation of the domestic procedures needed for the entry into force of intergovernmental treaties and other documents adopted within the CIS. Viktor Guminskiy noted that the work done by the Executive Committee and the cooperation bodies allows to identify and exclude ineffective instruments from the CIS international treaty framework.

Member of the Committee on International Affairs, Defense and Security of Jogorku Kenesh of the Kyrghyz Republic Akylbek Zhamangulov reported on the activities of the Youth Interparliamentary Assembly of the CIS Member Nations (YIPA CIS).

Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council Galina Karelova reported on the preparation for the Second Eurasian Women's Forum which will be held in St. Petersburg on 20-21 September 2018. The main theme of the forum is "Women for Global Security and Sustainable Development".

Galina Karelova invited women MPs from the CIS to actively contribute in this event and, in particular, in the discussion of political, economic and social changes affecting the security and stability in the world.