Valentina Matvienko: Period of Global Uncertainty Exposed Need to Strengthen Ties With "Neighbor World"

Chairperson of the IPA CIS Council, Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Valentina Matvienko noted in an interview with the Multimedia Information Centre “Izvestia” that the parliamentary dialogue was in demand and stressed the need to coordinate efforts in the Commonwealth in current conditions.

The interview took place on the eve of the regular session of the IPA CIS to be held in the Tavricheskiy Palace in St. Petersburg via videoconferencing.

Valentina Matvienko said that the decision to hold the session via videoconferencing came up during the extensive consultations with the Speakers of the CIS parliaments.

Chairperson of the IPA CIS Council also noted that the IPA CIS constituted a dialogue window for interaction with other international parliamentary organizations. Thus, the session is expected to be attended by the PACE President, as well as the Head of the WHO Regional Office for Europe.

Valentina Matvienko also said that the participants of the session would pay much attention to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Speaker of the Federation Council noted that during this period, the interaction between the CIS countries in the humanitarian area strengthened, in particular, the exchange of experience in the fight against coronavirus and adopted measures to support the economy.

According to Valentina Matvienko, traditional issues on the IPA agenda would also remain relevant. These include the harmonization of legislation of the Member Nations, which is extremely important for building a common economic, humanitarian and linguistic space. Chairperson of the IPA CIS Council said that the session would consider the model Electoral and Labour Codes, the laws on refugees, and on parliamentary oversight, as well as the cooperation in the field of suppression of crimes in the Internet, and with the use of information technologies, etc.

She also stressed that, despite of different crisis points there was no need to question the existence of the Commonwealth of Independent States as an institution.

Photo: http://council.gov.ru/