The President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), Mr. Pier Ferdinando Casini, today made a strong plea for dialogue to build trust among peoples, cultures and religions and as a means of resolving conflicts and disagreements.

The IPU President made the remarks at the inaugural session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM), which took place today in Amman at the invitation of the Jordanian Parliament. He stated that there could be no better manifestation of the shared belief around the Mediterranean in dialogue as a preferred means of resolving differences than the creation of the new Assembly. It represented the culmination of a fifteen year-long process during which the Inter-Parliamentary Union had facilitated political dialogue among members of parliament on security and cooperation issues in the Mediterranean.

The Speaker of the Jordanian House of Representatives, Mr. Abdulhadi Al-Majali, presided over the session which proceeded to elect Mr. Abdelwahed Radi, Speaker of the House of Representatives of Morocco, as its President. The Assembly also decided to locate its headquarters in Valletta, Malta. During the session, the Assembly adopted its basic statutory documents: the Statutes and Rules of Procedure; elected its Bureau members; and finalized arrangements for the work of the Assembly in 2007.

At the close of the session, the Assembly adopted a political declaration setting out some of its key objectives in the area of security and cooperation. The Assembly also endorsed a presidential statement calling upon the Israeli authorities to release the recently imprisoned Speaker and several members of the Palestinian Legislative Council.

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Established in 1889 and with its Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the IPU, the oldest multilateral political organisation, currently brings together 146 affiliated parliaments and seven regional assemblies as associate members. The world organisation of parliaments has an Office in New York, which acts as its Permanent Observer at the United Nations.
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