CSTO Grouping Creates Parliamentary Assembly
November 16, 2006
Duma speaker Boris Gryzlov (in file photo) says the new assembly will enhance antitrafficking and counterterrorism efforts (CTK)
The decision was reached today in St. Petersburg on the sidelines of a CIS parliamentary meeting.
Reports suggest 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.
The CSTO parliamentary assembly will be headed by Boris Gryzlov, the speaker of the lower house of Russian parliament, the Duma, and headquartered in St. Petersburg.
Gryzlov today said the creation of a CSTO parliamentary assembly, in which many countries bordering Afghanistan will be represented, will help enhance regional cooperation against drug trafficking and international terrorism.
Gryzlov made his comments after talks with his Afghan counterpart, Mohammad Yunos Qanuni, who attended the CIS parliamentary assembly as an observer.
(ITAR-TASS, Interfax-Northwest, afghanistan.ru)