KABUL. Dec 24 (Interfax) - Sergei Naryshkin, speaker of the State Duma, the lower chamber of Russia's parliament, arrived in Afghanistan on Tuesday for a working visit, during which he plans to discuss with the Afghan authorities relations between the two countries, ties between their parliaments and key international topics.
During the trip, Naryshkin is expected to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, head of the Afghan National Assembly's Upper House Fazel Hadi Muslimyar and head of the assembly's Lower House Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi.
A member of the Russian delegation, chairman of the State Duma Committee for CIS Affairs and Eurasian Integration Leonid Slutsky, told reporters that Naryshkin is visiting Afghanistan both as the State Duma's speaker and chairman of the Collective Security Treaty Organization's (CSTO) Parliamentary Assembly.
Afghanistan received observer status with the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly in April 2013, Slutsky said.
The CSTO and Afghanistan have been discussing a wide variety of topics, ranging from the fight "against Afghan drug trafficking to security in Central Asia in general," Slutsky said.
Naryshkin's delegation to Afghanistan also includes first deputy director of the Russian Federal Drug Control Service Vladimir Kalanda and the Russian president's special envoy for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov.