OSCE Parliamentary Assembly to gather in Kazakhstan.

ALMATY, June 29 (Itar-Tass) - The 17th annual session of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will be held in Astana, Kazakhstan, on June 29 - July 3, 2008. It will be dominated by transparency issues.
"The subject of the upcoming meeting - "Transparency in the OSCE" - will give its participants an opportunity to discuss challenges facing the OSCE," the speakers of the Senate (the upper chamber) and majilis (the lower chamber) of the Kazakh parliament, Kasymzhomart Tokayev and Aslan Musin, said in a joint address to the session's delegates.
Jordan Lennmarker, the president of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, believes that the annual session, which is being held in the context of Kazakhstan's OSCE presidency in 2010, will contribute to further expansion of the OSCE inter-parliamentary dialogue that will also involve the parliaments of Central Asian states.
Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the speakers of both
chambers of parliament and Joran Lennmarker are expected to deliver
speeches at the plenary meeting on Sunday.
Klas Bergman, the director of communications of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, told journalists that the OSCE incumbent president - Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb - was expected to deliver his speech on July 2.
The forum is to pass the final declaration at a closing session. It will also elect a new president of the PA OSCE.
The forum's press centre reports that more than 500 delegates from
more than 50 European, Asian and American states as well as
representatives of international and parliamentary organizations will
attend the annual session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.