Nikolai Bordyuzha: CSTO PA’s work is an example of the parliamentary dimension’s effectiveness

During the round-table discussion Eurasian Security Analytics: Current State, Problems and Solutions at the hybrid Second Eurasian Analytical Forum 2021, Nikolai Bordyuzha, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Analitica Association, Chairman of the Coordinating Council of the Eurasian Information and Analytical Consortium, CSTO Secretary General from 2003 to January 2017, praised the information and analytical work of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization.

“CSTO PA’s work is an example of the parliamentary dimension’s effectiveness,” said Nikolai Bordyuzha. “As you recall, a parliamentary delegation from Serbian National Assembly, and until recently from Afghanistan, participates in the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly’s work and takes an active interest in the activities of the Collective Security System; thanks to this very interesting, truly public diplomacy, very interesting steps are taken to raise the awareness about the CSTO’s work, to bring our nations closer together, and we can say that the Parliamentary Assembly makes a considerable contribution to the Organization’s work.”

As you may recall, Vyacheslav Kocharyan, Secretary of the Legal Centre for Information and Analysis of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly, took part in the round-table discussion Eurasian Security Analytics: Current State, Problems and Solutions and made a report On the Role of Information and Analytical Factor in the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly’s Work.

“The main area of information and analytical work of the Assembly is the parliamentary monitoring of military and political situation on the borders and in the regions of the CSTO collective security,” Secretary of the CSTO PA Legal Centre for Information and Analysis noted in his report, emphasizing that the results of the parliamentary monitoring are regularly presented in the form of final documents of the CSTO PA working bodies and used by the national parliaments of the Organization’s Member States.

He cited observation of exercises of the Organization’s Collective Forces by the CSTO States’ parliamentarians as another well-established form of expert interaction.

For instance, in 2021 members of the Coordination Council of Chairpersons of Committees (Commissions) on Defence and Security of the Parliaments of the CSTO Member States under the CSTO PA Council visited the CRDF exercise Vzaimodeistvie 2021 in the Republic of Tajikistan and the Peacekeeping Forces’ exercise Unbreakable Brotherhood 2021 in the Russian Federation.

As noted in the report, monitoring the provisions of international and national law in the context of harmonization of the CSTO Member States’ legislation with the provisions of international treaties concluded within the framework of the Organization plays an equally important role in the information support of the CSTO PA.

The Secretary of the CSTO PA Legal Centre for Information and Analysis identified observation of the organization and conduct of elections and referenda at the invitation of the authorized bodies of the CSTO Member States as one of the most important areas of monitoring the situation in the CSTO area of responsibility.

This year alone the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly delegations have been involved in the monitoring of six electoral processes, inter alia, in the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and the Russian Federation.

Vyacheslav Kocharyan stressed that “in its law-making, the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly aims at establishing a common security framework, taking into consideration new challenges and threats, and relies on qualitative analysis and forecast of the military and political situation and legal environment.”

Nikolai Bordyuzha, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Analitica Association, Chairman of the Coordinating Council of the Eurasian Information and Analytical Consortium, CSTO Secretary General from 2003 to January 2017 and moderator of the round-table discussion, noted that the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly is an example of effective work in the parliamentary dimension and that the Assembly makes a great contribution to the work of the Collective Security Treaty Organization.

Participants of the meeting discussed crisis response in the interests of collective security of the CSTO Member States, the military and political situation in Central Asia and current challenges and threats in the interpretation of the CSTO Collective Security Strategy until 2025.

Distinctive features of NATO’s military activities in the post-Soviet space and adjacent areas at the turn of 2010s–2020s were also discussed.

Participants of the round-table discussion included Viktor Biyagov, Permanent and Plenipotentiary Representative of the Republic of Armenia to the CSTO; Vyacheslav Remenchik, Permanent and Plenipotentiary Representative of the Republic of Belarus to the CSTO; Khasan Sultonov, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Tajikistan to the CSTO; Samat Ordabaev, deputy Secretary General of the CSTO; Viktor Lisovsky, deputy Chief of the CSTO Joint Staff; representatives of the Eurasian Information and Analytical Consortium and representatives of the expert community: Aleksei Maslov, Director of the Institute of Asian and African Studies at Lomonosov Moscow State University; representatives of Lomonosov Moscow State University, Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy Sciences (RAS), the RAS Institute of Europe, the RAS Primakov Institute of World Economy and International Relations, the RAS Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences and the Center of Geopolitical Studies of the Russian-Tajik (Slavonic) University.