UFA, 19 October 2017. /Bashinform News Agency, Galiya Nabieva/. The 137th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union was concluded in St. Petersburg. The current forum is the most representative for the entire 128-year history of the union: over 160 delegations, 96 of them speakers, 2400 participants.
The program of the Assembly was very rich and diverse: these were meetings of the standing committees on peace and international security, sustainable development, finance and trade, democracy and human rights, UN affairs; the Association of Secretaries General of Parliaments, and the Forums of Parliamentary Women, Young Parliamentarians, and the election of the President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
The member of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs Rafail Zinurov participated in bilateral meetings with heads of national delegations of Indonesia, Uruguay, Seychelles, Burundi, Monaco, Laos, Cambodia, Argentina, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Rwanda, Algeria, Nigeria, Namibia and Qatar.
During the talks, issues of developing mutually beneficial bilateral trade, economic and investment cooperation, expanding cultural, educational and humanitarian ties, as well as expanding bilateral and multilateral inter-parliamentary relations were discussed.
On the last day of the Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Rafail Zinurov, as part of the Russian delegation headed by the Federation Council Chairwoman Valentina Matvienko, participated in negotiations with colleagues representing the Hungarian State Assembly headed by Hungarian Parliament Speaker Laszlo Kövér. Discussing the topic of the intercultural pluralism development in the world, the parties also touched on the situation around the law on education adopted in Ukraine, which discriminatory regulations do not allow members of ethnic minorities to receive education in their native language. According to the parties, this situation is unacceptable.
After the forum is over, the senator from Bashkortostan, who is the head of the group of members of the Federation Council for Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation with the Republic of Korea, will meet with the Secretary General of the National Assembly of South Korea, Woo Yoon-keun. It relates to long-term plans for cooperation between the parliaments of the two countries.
