PARLIAMENTARY DIPLOMACY AS AN ADDITIONAL DIPLOMATIC RESOURCE OF A STATE

International inter-parliamentary cooperation is a dynamically growing field of the contemporary international relations. The rise of a global parliamentary movement served as a basis for the increasing significance of parliamentary diplomacy as an additional resource of a state. It is therefore, we attempt to analyze the phenomenon of parliamentary diplomacy, its essence, major characteristics, and modern forms in this paper. Special focus is given to the role of parliamentary diplomacy in promoting and realizing national interests of the state on international arena, its advantages and shortcomings in comparison with state diplomacy. The historical preconditions, main tendencies and the perspectives of the growth of parliamentary diplomacy will also be covered in this article.