Almaty (Republic of Kazakhstan) hosted celebrations marking the 30th anniversary of the IPA CIS establishment

The Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the Member Nations of the Commonwealth of Independent States held a celebratory meeting marking the 30th anniversary of the IPA CIS on March 29 in Almaty (Republic of Kazakhstan).
Before the celebratory event, heads of parliamentary delegations of the IPA CIS Member Nations laid flowers at the Glory Memorial in Almaty.
Participants of the ceremony included Valentina Matvienko, Chairwoman of the Council of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly and Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation; Sahiba Gafarova, Speaker of the Milli Mejlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan; Alen Simonyan, President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia; Natalya Kochanova, Speaker of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus; Maulen Ashimbaev, Chairman of the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan; Pavel Kazantsev, deputy Chairman of the Mazhilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan; Talant Mamytov, Speaker of the Jogorku Kenesh of the Kyrgyz Republic; Ivan Melnikov, first deputy Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation; Rustam Emomali, Chairman of the Majlisi Milli of the Majlisi Oli of the Republic of Tajikistan; Tanzila Narbaeva, Chairwoman of the Senate of the Republic of Uzbekistan; Gulshat Mammedova, Chairwoman of the Majlis Milli of the Gengesh of Turkmenistan; and Dmitry Kobitsky, Secretary General, Head of the Secretariat of the IPA CIS Council.
Valentina Matvienko, Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, read out a welcome address to the participants by Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation.
“The Assembly occupies an important place among the bodies of the Commonwealth of Independent States; it is an effective and highly demanded mechanism of multilateral interaction. The exchange of experience between our countries’ legislators contributes to raising the efficiency of legal regulation at the national level and creating conditions for the promotion of integration processes,” reads the address by the President of the Russian Federation.
“It is important that the Assembly continues to make a significant contribution to the mobilization of collective efforts to combat terrorism, drug trafficking, cross-border crime and other threats and challenges to international security. The systematic participation of the Assembly’s representatives in observing elections in the CIS helps fully implement the principles of fair representation and democratic and free expression of will,” notes the address by the President of the Russian Federation.
All members of the Collective Security Council of the Collective Security Treaty Organization – Nikol Pashinyan, Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia; Aleksandr Lukashenko, President of the Republic of Belarus; Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, President of the Republic of Kazakhstan; Sadyr Japarov, President of the Kyrgyz Republic; Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation; and Emomali Rakhmon, President of the Republic of Tajikistan, sent their greetings to the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly.
In her speech at the IPA CIS Council meeting, Valentina Matvienko recalled that the Agreement on the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly was signed in Almaty on March 27, 1992. “This is when the CIS, a very young international union at the time, obtained its parliamentary dimension. And over the past three decades we have proved that this decision was absolutely necessary: our Assembly has become one of the ‘pillars’ of the Commonwealth,” said Valentina Matvienko.
In his speech at the celebratory meeting of the IPA CIS Council, Maulen Ashimbaev, Chairman of the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, noted that it is particularly symbolic that the Council meeting was held in the city and in the building of the Friendship of Nations, where on March 27, 1992 the historic document on founding the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly was signed.
Viktor Rogalev, Plenipotentiary Representative of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly, deputy Executive Secretary of the CSTO PA emphasized, “It is important that today, 30 years later, our Commonwealth States, our parliaments continue to demonstrate commitment to friendship and inter-parliamentary cooperation.”