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On October 7 the delegation led by the RA NA President, Head of the NA Delegation in the Inter-Parliamentary Union took part in the works of the 129^th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Geneva. Karen Chshmaritian, Heghine Bisharyan, Karine Atshemyan, Martin Sargsyan are in the delegation led by the NA President.

In the Session of the IPU Governing Council items relating to the membership of the structure, the reports of the President and Secretary General of the organization, financial issues were discussed, the programme and the draft consolidated 2014 budget of the IPU was introduced. After the session of the Governing Council the 129^th IPU Assembly began its work, where about 1200 delegates of 125 countries and presidents of parliaments of 45 countries were taking part. The President of the IPU Abdelwahad Radi had an opening word. On the first day the Assembly discussed the item “Towards a nuclear-weapon-free world: The contribution of parliaments.” In the IPU committees the items “The role of parliaments in protecting the rights of children, in particular unaccompanied migrant children, and in preventing their exploitation in situations of war and conflict” and the implementation of the resolution N 1540 the consequences of the Treaty “On Weapon Sale” and related actions “On Non-Spreading of Weapons of Mass Destruction of the UN Security Council.

On the same day the RA NA President Hovik Abrahamyan met with the President of the Lebanese Parliament Nabih Berri. Hovik Abrahamyan noted that Armenia, having numerous common features with Lebanon and historical traditions of friendship between the peoples, highlights the cooperation both in the development of bilateral relations and in the international arena. In his word, the Armenian people’s relations with Lebanon comes from old centuries, the presence of the Armenian community in Lebanon has a history of hundred centuries, and due to brotherly attitude of the Lebanese people the Armenians could to preserve the national identity and the culture. The President of the RA National Assembly highlighted the deepening of cooperation between the two countries and parliaments, the bilateral contacts and activation of economic cooperation. To his assessment, the two countries have also recorded big successes in different international instances in terms of mutually beneficial cooperation.

The President of the Lebanese Parliament highly assessed the Armenian-Lebanese relations and highlighted the further development and strengthening of the inter-parliamentary cooperation. Nabih Berri invited Hovik Abrahamyan to Lebanon on an official visit.

In the course of the meeting the sides touched upon the regional problems, the NK issue and the developments in Syria. Talking over the South Caucasian and Near East regional issues, the interlocutors documented the importance of solving all the problems through negotiations.

During the meeting other issues of bilateral interest were discussed.