SCO needs to develop inter-parliamentary component - Russian president's special envoy
NOVOSIBIRSK. July 3 (Interfax) - The work of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) may get a new dimension thanks to the interaction between the parliaments of the member states, Bakhtiyer Khakimov, the Russian president's special envoy on SCO affairs, said.
"We once tried to launch 'parliamentary dimension' in the SCO as well. Now this idea is supported in the Russian Federation," he said at the 1st International Congress of Women of the SCO and BRICS countries held in Novosibirsk on Monday.
The discussion of this proposal is beginning, he said.
"We would like to hope that the Federation Council will take this initiative in its hands and we will promote it together, and the Foreign Ministry, as usual, will be ready to help the appearance of a new track in the work of the SCO," he told Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko, who chairs the work of the congress.
The joining of India and Pakistan to the SCO makes this organization one of the leading multilateral associations of a global level, Khakimov said.
"It is enough to say that the SCO member countries now account for almost half of the population of the planet," he said.
The 1st International Congress of Women of the SCO and BRICS countries held in Novosibirsk on July 3-4 is devoted to the issue 'The Role of Women in Modern Society: Cooperation in Politics, Economics, Science, Education and Culture.'
