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Alexander Romanovich took part in the meeting of the Parliamnentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM) 18 февраля 2016 Tirana, the capital of Albania, hosted the 10th plenary meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM). Russia was represented by Alexander Romanovich, deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Foreign Affairs and Yury Fedotov, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Vienna (UNOV), the Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. PAM uniting 27 full member states of the Mediterranean region was established in 2005. The Assembly is an independent parliamentary organization focused on development of the political dialogue and mutual understanding between parliamentarians on the issues of strengthening the mutual trust between the member states, provision of regional security and stability, peace and harmonious development of the Mediterranean. Russia is not a PAM member yet but it is considered as a perspective partner for a dialogue. Ilir Meta, the Chairman of the Parliament of Albania, and Lu Lmarbukha, the PAM Chairman, welcomed the participants of the forum in Tirana. The address of UN Secretary General Pan Gi Moon was announced at the meeting. The session was also participated Lamberto Zannier, Secretary General of OSCE; Naser Judeh, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Jordan and Jean-Paul Laborde, Executive Director of the UN Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee. The main part of the discussion was devoted to such urgent regional issues as migration, terror threat, the economic, ecological and social challenges as well as the necessity to activate a cross-cultural dialogue. In his speech within the framework of the discussion, Yury Fedotov described Russia’s view regarding the range of problems of the region. Alexander Romanovich had a meeting with Ilir Meta, the Chairman of the Parliament of Albania, on the sidelines of the session and presented him with the message from Sergei Naryshkin, the Chairman of the RF State Duma. In his message, the Leader of the lower chamber of the Russian parliament said he was sharing his Albanian colleague’s opinion that as the problems in the region aggravate, there is a special need for the member-countries of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean to strengthen their all-round dialogue and activate their efforts for preservation of their common cultural and humanitarian heritage. At present, this insistent need is strengthening not only as a result of general turbulence in the world but also due to the growing danger of terrorism and a permanent immigration humanitarian crisis. Sergei Naryshkin also expressed his hope for a constructive exchange of opinions (within the framework of the session) between the Mediterranean parliamentarians on the key issues of the region which might contribute to building of a dialogue between the countries, their cooperation under the conditions of the continuing crises in Syria and Lebanon, and aggravation of the political situation in the Middle East, in general. The Russian representatives at the PAM session held a series of bilateral meetings with the forum participants.
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