Speaker to focus on democratic governance challenges at IPU Assembly

“The 153rd Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly in Tanzania is distinguished by the fact that the assembly will elect its president. The acting president, elected in 2023, is the Chairman of the Parliament of Tanzania, and that is why the event is held here,” said Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili.

According to the Speaker, approximately 160 countries participate in the assembly.

“I will have the opportunity to review democratic governance challenges. I will hold bilateral meetings with the parliamentary delegations from countries of Europe. Asia, Africa, and Latin America. This assembly unites the parliaments of approximately 180 countries; it is one of the largest international organizations, a body representing parliaments of significant political weight.

For us, the assembly has always been significant as a platform for actively pursuing the policy of non-recognition. Nauru joined the assembly this year. We will meet the chair of the Nauru Parliament. You know that Nauru recently revoked its recognition of the so-called independence of the occupied territories and established diplomatic relations with them. This opened the path for Nauru to the Assembly’s membership,” he said.

Shalva Papuashvili added that the Assembly is an opportunity to communicate with geographically distant countries.

“From a distance, the challenges Georgia faces may not appear so acute to them; however, bilateral meetings provide the opportunity to explain that, while these challenges may be geographically distant for them, they are close at hand in terms of international legal issues, since if international law principles are violated in one spot of the world, they will be violated in another place and precedents have bad recurrence,” he said.

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili leads the Georgian delegation at the 153rd Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly in Tanzania.