137th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in St. Petersburg can be a good platform for a dialogue between parliamentarians of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, said in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza.
"Both Armenia and Azerbaijan have confirmed their participation in the work of the IPU Assempley St. Petersburg. Armenian delegation will be headed by the parliament speaker, while Azerbaijani delegation will be headed by deputy chairman of the parliament. In our view, parliamentarians of these two countries should establish a dialogue with each other and use the IPU in order to communicate and develop joint ideas and proposals .We hope that such meetings will be held in St. Petersburg," he said.
"I am sure that Russia should be an active sponsor of such dialogue and meetings. We have all necessary opportunities, we have trust of both Armenia and Azerbaijan. Russia is perceived as a partner in this dialogue, and several meetings in tripartite format between presidents of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as contacts in all other areas confirm this," he noted.
Speaking about the decisions that may be made during the IPU Assembly, he recalled that previous session discussed a resolution, proposed by Russia, on the inadmissibility of interference in sovereign affairs of independent states.
"After final vote there were 11 or 12 votes 'against' and 53 votes 'for'. Moreover, different countries like North Korea and South Korea, Iran and Saudi Arabia, Cuba and Mexico voted for it. I call these pairs of countries because they have different ideological positions, and yet we managed to unite them and leave apologists for violating sovereignty of other states in absolute minority. I believe that this is a very important political result," he concluded.
