New Delhi [India], October 22 (ANI): Emphasising the need for collective democratic action, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday asserted that dialogue and deliberation among world parliaments are imperative to resolve pressing global challenges, adding that India is expanding Parliamentary Friendship Groups globally on an unprecedented scale.

Addressing a press conference here ahead of the 12th World Parliamentary Forum, Birla underscored that parliamentary diplomacy plays a critical role in guiding executive governments toward sustainable global solutions.

'To resolve global challenges, dialogue and deliberation among world parliaments are imperative. While every nation holds its own sovereignty, world parliaments must engage with one another to arrive at positive outcomes that can guide respective governments,' Birla said.

Detailing India's outreach, the Lok Sabha Speaker Birla noted that Parliament has institutionalised cross-border parliamentary ties at a magnitude never seen before.

'Parliamentary Friendship Groups have been constituted with all partner nations. While efforts were made earlier, this initiative has been taken up on a massive, comprehensive level for the first time, and we are continually expanding these bilateral groups,' he said.

Lok Sabha Speaker Birla also highlighted India's push to position its premier legislative training wing as a global centre of excellence for foreign lawmakers and officials.

'We are scaling up our training capacities by inviting experts from India and across the world so that representatives from more nations can be trained here. We endeavour to strengthen this institution's identity on international platforms like the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) so that foreign parliamentarians and officials can adopt democratic best practices suited to their needs,' he added.

Expressing confidence in the upcoming 12th World Parliamentary Forum, Birla said the summit would yield crucial, actionable decisions that world assemblies could deliberate upon in the future.

He also called upon the media to play a proactive role in projecting the deliberations of the forum to the global community. (ANI)