DUSHANBE, November 24, 2015, Asia-Plus – Chairman of Majlisi Milli (Tajikistan’s upper house of parliament) Mahmadsaid Ubaidulloyev heading a Tajik parliamentary delegation will leave for St. Petersburg tomorrow for a three-day visit.
An official source at Majlisi Milli says the main purpose of the visit is for the delegation to participate in sessions of the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of Member Nations of the Commonwealth of Independent State (CIS IPA) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO PA).
While in St. Petersburg, Ubaidulloyev is also scheduled to hold talks with heads of parliamentary delegations of a number of CIS and CSTO member nations, the source said.
CIS IPA was created on March 27, 1992 in Almaty (Kazakhstan) under the terms of the Agreement signed by Heads of founding parliaments. In 1995, the session of the Council of the CIS Heads of State held in Minsk, Belarus consolidated the status of CIS IPA as a fully-fledged international organization. On May 26, 1995 CIS leaders signed the Convention on the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of Member Nations of the Commonwealth of Independent States eventually ratified by nine CIS parliaments. Under the terms of the Convention, the CIS IPA was invested with international legitimacy.
The CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly consists of national parliamentary delegations. A Parliamentary Delegation consists of representatives of a Member Nation elected or appointed by the Parliament of a Member Nation Party to the IPA CIS Convention from among their members and in compliance with respective internal regulations. A parliamentary delegation is led by the Head of parliamentary delegation. IPA CIS Council is responsible for the organization of work of the Assembly. The Council is presided over by the Chairperson.
The decision on creating the CSTO PA was reached on November 16, 2006 in St. Petersburg on the sidelines of a CIS parliamentary meeting. Just six of the countries that compose the CSTO — Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan — signed a document to that effect, but that Uzbekistan, which resumed its membership of the organization in August, did not.
