DUSHANBE, February 18, 2018, Asia-Plus -- Chairman of Tajikistan’s lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of parliament, Shukurjon Zuhurov, who is currently in Tehran to participate in the 9th Conference of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Parliamentary Union, today morning met there with Dr. Mohammad Hadi Nejad-Hosseinian, Secretary-General of the Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APP), Muhammadato Sultonov, a spokesman for the Majlisi Namoyandagon, told Asia-Plus in an interview.

According to him, the sides discussed issues related to expansion of cooperation in the field f legislation and establishment of parliamentary friendship groups.

“Zuhurov and Nejad-Hosseinian also discussed problems of maintaining peace and stability in the region, economic development, enhancement of social sector and the environmental protection issues,” Sultonov said.

The Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA) was born in 2006 at the Seventh Session of the Association of Asian Parliamentary for Peace (AAPP). In other words, the APA is continuation of an organization which was established in 1999.  The APA comprises, in 2007, of 41 Member Parliaments and 17 observers.

 Each Member Parliament has a specific number of seats in the Assembly based on the size of their population.  The number of total seats, and therefore, number of votes, is currently 206.  Members of Assembly must be elected by members of the Member Parliaments.  The APA Charter and Tehran Declaration lay out a framework of cooperation among Asian countries, and point out to a vision; that is Asian Integration.