CSTO PA Experts and Parliamentarians in Minsk Discuss Military and Political Situation in the Region

A working meeting of the CSTO PA experts was held in Minsk on May 15.

It was attended by representatives of the national parliaments of Belarus and Russia and members of the CSTO PA bodies Anatoly Vyborny, Oleg Belokonev, Evgeny Zaitsev, Aleksandr Markevich and Sergei Rachkov; representatives of a number of entities and state administration bodies of Belarus in the field of national security and external relations; representatives of higher educational institutions of Belarus, whose experts take part in the work of the Expert Advisory Board under the CSTO PA Council; and other Parliamentary Assembly bodies.

Oleg Makarov, Director of the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies, thanked the leadership of the Parliamentary Assembly for many years of fruitful cooperation and called the interaction on implementation of the norms and provisions of the CSTO PA model acts into the system of national legislation not only an effective activity on a number of issues, but also “a great school for lawyers.”

The meeting discussed consolidation of information and analytical potential and coordination of CSTO PA expert community’s efforts to improve the quality of model lawmaking, inter-parliamentary cooperation and monitoring of the military and political situation in the CSTO regions, as well as interaction of CSTO PA experts during the implementation of priority directions of the Republic of Belarus, which holds the CSTO Chairmanship in 2023.

“Working with experts starts before the drafting of model acts, at a conceptual stage. And such meetings are crucial for the quality of model legislation. Today’s meeting showed the effectiveness of such work involving all national institutions that develop security legislation. For instance, the ideas put forward in the recommendations to improve the legislation to protect electoral processes and sovereignty in the CSTO Member States, once proposed by the Belarusian side and adopted in the framework of the Parliamentary Assembly, became ideas that are now used to improve the Security Concept of the Republic of Belarus,“ Sergei Pospelov, CSTO PA Executive Secretary, noted.

The meeting resulted in a signing of the Treaty on Interaction and Cooperation Between the Secretariat of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies.

The document envisages a long-term and mutually beneficial cooperation between the parties while elaborating model legal acts; conducting information analysis and research in the interests of the CSTO PA action plans and other areas of activity aimed to ensure national security of the CSTO Member States that are related to improving and harmonizing national legislations.