MOSCOW,Sept.21(MNA)--The inauguration ceremony of the 15th General Assembly of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) was held in Moscow on Thursday morning with Valentina Ivanovna Matviyenko, Chairman of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation , Ivan Melnikov , Vice-Chairman of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and deputy of the State Duma , director generals of 35 news agencies and a number of Russian ministers and high-ranking officials in attendance.

Three Iranian delegations – the Mehr News Agency (MNA), IRNA, and the Fars News Agency – delegations from Chinese Xinhua News Agency, Japanese Kyodo and JIJI News Agency, Asian News International (ANI) and Press Trust of India (PTI), the Australian Associated Press (APP), the Indonesian Antara News Agency, the Malaysian Bernama News Agency, Azeri AzerTAj and Trend News Agency, Mongolian news agency Montsame , and news agencies from Bahrain, Afghanistan, Pakistan, UAE, North Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, and Kazakhstan were among the participates of the congress.