Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine to Expand Parliamentary Ties

Visiting Kiev for the inter-parliamentary conference on June 8-9, Parliament Chairman Irakli Kobakhidze met his counterparts from Moldova, Andrian Candu, and Ukraine, Andriy Parubiy.

The three speakers have agreed today to establish an inter parliamentary assembly that “would expand cooperation and dialogue among the countries, strengthen their parliamentary relations and the discussions on issues of trilateral interest.”

Kobakhidze underscored in his opening remarks that the three countries “share common aspiration of becoming members of the western family,” and that an inter-parliamentary assembly would become “a bridge to the European Union,” and also convey “a strong message to our American partners” that there is freedom and democracy “in our part of the world.”

“We believe that integration and close cooperation with European and Euro-Atlantic community of nations, is based on our historical past, cultural and national legacy, and a valuable legitimate aspirations of our peoples,” he noted.

Speaking at the panel session on Countering the New Security Challenges, Irakli Kobakhidze also reviewed the “grave” security and human rights situation in Abkhazia and Tskhinvali Region/South Ossetia, stressing that “Russia remains to be the aggressive force” and calling the international community “to pay special attention to the problems” in those two occupied regions.

“The joint efforts to stop Russian aggression” would be one of the main issues that the three parliamentary chairmen plan to discuss at the first meeting of the assembly scheduled to be held in Tbilisi this fall.

Kiev is hosting the second Inter-Parliamentary Conference “Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine: Strengthening the Inter-Parliamentary Component of Regional and Security Cooperation, While Developing Interaction with the EU and NATO”. The first meeting was held in Moldova in March.

On the sidelines of the conference, Kobakhidze, Candu and Parubiy also met with the European Parliament members Rebecca Harms (Greens/EFA, Germany), Michael Gahler (EPP, Germany) and Petras Austrevicius (ALDE, Lithuania).

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)