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Moscow seeks to make Russian one of official languages at Inter-Parliamentary Union

The Inter-Parliamentary Union, which is made up of 170 countries, is an informal "parliamentary equivalent" of the UN

GENEVA, October 24. /TASS/. Moscow is determined to make Russian another official working language within the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), which is made up of 170 countries, IPU Deputy Chairman, head of Russia’s Federation Council (upper house of parliament) Committee for Foreign Affairs Konstantin Kosachyov said on Monday.

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According to him, Russia will continue to promote the initiative that Russian should take on a working language status within the union. Some steps will be taken at the 135th assembly taking place in Geneva. "Basically no one has any objections, but funding ability is crucial," Kosachyov said. English and French have been the only working languages of the IPU for a long time but a while ago Arabic was also given the working language status, he noted.

Speaking about the current IPU assembly, he said that the agenda included the issue of women in politics and the responsibility of parliaments for defending human rights. Besides that, there will be a parliamentary hearing on the draft resolution on the parliaments’ role in preventing external interference in internal affairs of sovereign states. "The initial text of the resolution will be presented before the year ends, while it is going to be finally adopted at the IPU Assembly in Dhaka (Bangladesh) in April 2017," the Russian senator elaborated.

"I am sure that once our resolution is adopted in Dhaka, a strong impetus will be given to its discussion by other international organization, particularly by the UN, its General Assembly and perhaps the UN Security Council. We also expect the Ukrainian issue, the Syrian crisis, the situation in Iraq, Libya and Yemen to be discussed and assessed," Kosachyov noted.

In addition, we spoke out in favor of enhancing the role and efficiency of the IPU and improving its ways of operating.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union established in 1889 is the world’s oldest and one of the most influential and credible international parliamentary organizations. The IPU is an informal "parliamentary equivalent" of the UN. The Union comprises 170 countries while 11 inter-parliamentary organizations are associate members of the IPU.

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