At the plenary session of the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN) held in Guatemala on September 25, 2024, there was made a decision to grant the State Duma the status of permanent observer. The majority of parliamentarians supported this decision.
Earlier, in July 2019, on the sidelines of the Second International Forum “Development of Parliamentarism” held in Moscow, there was signed an Agreement on Cooperation between the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation and the Central American Parliament. Then, in October 2023, at the International Parliamentary Conference “Russia — Latin America”, there was signed a special agreement granting the State Duma a permanent observer status at PARLACEN.
According to this agreement, there was created a Commission on Cooperation between the State Duma and the Central American Parliament, the First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Ivan Melnikov became the Co-Chair of the Commission.
PARLACEN was founded in 1991. It includes Guatemala, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Panama and El Salvador. (http://duma.gov.ru/en/news/60046/)
