On February 18, the online meeting of the coordinating heads of the parliamentary delegations of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member states in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE PA) was held, presided over by the Chair of the RA Standing Committee on Foreign Relations, the Head of the RA NA Delegation to OSCE PA Eduard Aghajanyan.

The National Assembly of the RA informed.

The representatives of Russia, Belarus, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, as well as of the CSTO PA Secretariat took part in the online meeting.

Welcoming the participants of the meeting, Eduard Aghajanyan spoke about the coordination of the foreign political activities of the parliamentary delegations of the CSTO PA member states in the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.

Touching upon the goals of the working meeting, Eduard Aghajanyan underlined the coordination of the joint positions on the international policy and the security modern issues, the mutual support, the necessity of taking into consideration the interests and obligations of the coordinating states within the framework of the CSTO. In this context he also singled out the importance of promoting the establishment of the coordinated equal relations, the review of the united constructive position and the possible collective decisions on some issues of the OSCE PA meetings.

It was noted the practice of holding the joint meeting of the heads of the parliamentary delegations of the CSTO member states to the OSCE PA was approved already in 2009.

According to the Head of the Armenian delegation, as the format of the OSCE PA Winter Meeting does not envisage the voting of the resolutions or the adoption of any report, general viewpoints will be presented at today’s meeting, as well as the positions of the side on the problematic issues of the upcoming 21st Winter Meeting of the OSCE PA will be compared.

It has been noted that the information on this meeting, the work of the delegations in the Winter Meeting and its results will be included in the agenda of the regular meeting of the CSTO PA Standing Commission on Political Issues and International Cooperation. It is planned to hold the meeting on March 11, 2022 in Yerevan.

The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Alexander Pankin in his speech on the coordination of the activities of the CSTO member states on the international platforms spoke about the effectiveness of the use of flexible mechanisms of parliamentary diplomacy. The coordinated and mutually agreed work of the CSTO PA delegations in different international structures was highlighted, taking into account the interests of the member states too.

Then the participants of the distant discussion touched upon the problems of the upcoming 21st Winter Meeting of the CSTO PA and exchanged ideas on the topical issues. They spoke about the need to develop and to adopt the model laws.