Tajik President Emomali Rahmon today received State Duma (Russia’s lower chamber of parliament) Vyacheslav Volodin, who arrived in Dushanbe to participate in in a session of the Collective Security Treaty Organization Parliamentary Assembly (CSTO PA).

In the course of the talks, Russian parliament speaker noted that “the parliaments of the two countries have been doing a lot for legislative support of decisions taken at the level of heads of state,” the State Duma’s official website saiid

The parties reportedly discussed the ole of the CSTO and the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly in resolving the issues related to providing security of the CSTO member nations and creating a single list of terrorist organizations.   

Volodin reportedly conveyed warm greetings from Russian President Vladimir Putin to the President of Tajikistan.  

Volodin heading a State Duma delegation arrived in Dushanbe late Wednesday night and his working visit began today.

While in Dushanbe, Volodin is also scheduled to hold talks with heads of both chamber of Tajikistan’s parliament and  Mir Rahman Rahmani, Speaker of Afghanistan's House of the People (Wolesi Jirga, the House of Representatives), who is currently in Dushanbe, according to the State Duma’s official website. 

The decision on creating the CSTO PA was reached on November 16, 2006 in St. Petersburg on the sidelines of a CIS parliamentary meeting.  Just six of the countries that compose the CSTO -- Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan -- signed a document to that effect.