Results and Prospects of Cooperation Between the CSTO PA and the CIS Discussed at Parliamentary Hearings

On February 15, the State Duma hosted parliamentary hearings of the Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots "On ways to implement the Concept of the Russian presidency in the CIS in 2024".

In the course of the meeting the participants discussed perspective plans within the Concept of the Russian presidency in the CIS and summarized the results of interactions in various areas of cooperation between the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Sergei Lebedev, CIS Secretary General, reminded that the CIS presidency passed to Russia on January 1, 2024, and said that the perspective plans of the Commonwealth activities are scheduled "for a very long period".

In his speech at the hearings, Sergei Pospelov, Executive Secretary of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly, presented the main areas of the CSTO PA cooperation with the CIS, noting that "CSTO Member States represent the core of integration in the CIS area" and that the interaction of friendly integration associations in Eurasia "is of key importance."

"We create examples that allow to form a common political position not only of the CSTO parliamentarians, but also of the Commonwealth as a whole. However, taking into account the specifics of the CSTO's statutory competence, we always focus on the potential developed by the CIS structures. We intend to further develop the practice of such interaction and cooperation that meets the mutual interests of the CSTO and the CIS," Sergei Pospelov emphasized.

At the parliamentary hearings, Mikhail Krotov, Plenipotentiary Representative of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation in the CSTO PA, suggested to make an inventory of the Model Acts adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly in the 1990s and to create new editions of them, taking into account the changes in the national legislation over the years.

One of the goals of the Commonwealth, represented in the Concept of Russian presidency in the CIS in 2024, is to improve the mechanisms of joint counteraction to traditional and new challenges and threats to the security of the CIS Member States, as well as to strengthen cooperation in the military and in border security spheres.