Valentina Matvienko suggested the status of the associate member of the IPU should be given to the IPA CIS

The IPA CIS Council Chairperson, Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Valentina Matvienko held a meeting with Saber Chowdhury, the president of the Interparliamentary Union, and Martin Chungong, the Secretary General of the Interparliamentary Union. The meeting took place in the run-up to the 133rd session of the Interparliamentary Union Assembly.

Valentina Matvienko applied to the Interparliamentary Union with the official invitation to host the Session of the year 2017 in Russia. Russia takes the obligation to arrange the top-level meeting with the participation of all the parliamentarians.

Valentina Matvienko highly appreciated the IPU’s activities: ‘This is a representative venue for open and impartial dialogue between different countries, a venue for sharing best practices. We are interested in continuing our cooperation with the IPU’.

The Chairperson of the IPA CIS Council also offered to include the Russian language in the list of the official or working languages of the IPU and to give the IPA CIS the status of the associate member of the IPU.

The parties also touched upon the issues of the IPU Assembly, and the migration issue in particular, and agreed on closer cooperation. The Interparliamentary Union is the oldest international parliamentary organization. The Assembly is its highest body; it is convened twice a year.