Om Birla Constituted Parliamentary Friendship Groups with 64 Nations

Key facts

• Lok Sabha (LS) Speaker Om Birla has constituted Parliamentary Friendship Groups with 64 countries to deepen dialogue and exchange best practices with international legislatures.
• Each friendship group comprises 11 members, including representatives from both the LS and the Rajya Sabha (RS).
• Indian National Congress (INC) leaders appointed to chair groups include Shashi Tharoor (France), P Chidambaram (Italy), K C Venugopal (Portugal), Manish Tewari (Australia), and Gaurav Gogoi (Philippines).
• Other Opposition chairpersons include K Kanimozhi (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)) for Greece, Derek O’Brien (Trinamool Congress (TMC)) for Chile, Abhishek Banerjee (TMC) for Algeria, Arvind Sawant (Shiv Sena-UBT) for Morocco, and Supriya Sule (Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar (NCP-SP)) for Singapore.
• Additional Opposition leaders heading groups are Asaduddin Owaisi (All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM)) for Oman, Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi Party (SP)) for Japan, Ram Gopal Yadav (SP) for Egypt, Sanjay Singh (Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)) for Caribbean countries, and N K Premachandran (Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP)) for Madagascar.
• Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders appointed as chairpersons include Ravi Shankar Prasad (United Kingdom (UK)), Baijayant Panda (United States of America (USA)), Nishikant Dubey (Russia), Anurag Thakur (European Union (EU) Parliament, Brussels), Rajiv Pratap Rudy (Switzerland), Bhartruhari Mahtab (Israel), Hema Malini (South Africa), Ashok Chavan (Argentina), Samik Bhattacharya (New Zealand), and Aparajita Sarangi (Tanzania).
• Other group leaders include Shrikant Shinde (Shiv Sena) for Indonesia, Sanjay Jha (Janata Dal (United) (JD(U))) for Germany, M Thambidurai (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)) for Nigeria, and Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu (Telugu Desam Party (TDP)).
• Members appointed to various groups include Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (Japan), Manickam Tagore (Indonesia), Gurjeet Singh Aujla (Italy), Hibi Eden (Singapore), Amrinder Singh Raja Warring (UK), Prashant Padole (Trinidad and Tobago), Dean Kuriakose (Saudi Arabia), C Kiran Kumar Reddy (South Korea), and S Venkatesan (Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M))) for Cuba.
• The groups are intended to facilitate discussions on trade, technology, social policy, culture, and global challenges faced by democracies.