Representatives of the consular missions accredited in St. Petersburg visited the headquarters of the IPA CIS

The Tavricheskiy Palace hosted the traditional meeting of the leadership of the IPA CIS Council Secretariat represented by the Acting Secretary General of the IPA CIS Council Sergey Antufiev and plenipotentiary representatives of the national parliaments of the IPA CIS Member Nations with the representatives of the consular missions accredited in St. Petersburg.

The participants of the event were informed about the results of IPA CIS activities in 2017 and watched the film dedicated to the 25^th anniversary of the IPA CIS.

At the meeting Acting Secretary General of the IPA CIS Council Sergey Antufiev awarded Head of the Representative office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation in St. Petersburg Vladimir Zapevalov and Deputy Head of the Representative office Igor Demianenkov with medals on the occasion of the 25^th IPA CIS anniversary for the active cooperation with the Interparliamentary Assembly.

Sergey Antufiev also informed the representatives of the diplomatic missions about the plans of the organization. “In 2018 the international observers from the IPA CIS will participate in the monitoring of the presidential elections in the Russian Federation on 18 March, early presidential elections in the Azerbaijan Republic on 11 April. This autumn we are going to participate in the monitoring the parliamentary elections in the Republic of Moldova. On 21-22 September the Tavricheskiy Palace will host the Second Eurasian Women’s Forum. Now we have more than one thousand requests to attend the Forum,” he said.

He also highlighted another important event - the International Humanitarian Law Conference on the 150^th Anniversary of the Adoption of the 1868 St. Petersburg Declaration Renouncing the Use, in Time of War, of Explosive Projectiles. The conference will be co-organized by the IPA CIS and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The meeting was attended by Deputies of Secretary General of the IPA CIS Council: Plenipotentiary Representative of Milli Mejlis of the Azerbaijan Republic Aidyn Jafarov, Plenipotentiary Representative of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia Ayk Chilingaryan, Plenipotentiary Representative of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus Viktor Kogut, Plenipotentiary Representative of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan Askhat Nuskabaj, Plenipotentiary Representative of the Jogorku Kenesh of the Kyrgyz Republic Nurbek Satvaldiev, Plenipotentiary Representative of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova Ion Lipciu and Plenipotentiary Representative of the Majlisi Oli of the Republic of Tajikistan to the IPA CIS Ibod Rakhimov.