Parliamentarians of Belarus and Russia Call on Their Colleagues to Speak With One Voice at OSCE PA Session

On June 20, a remote coordination meeting of the heads of the parliamentary delegations of the CSTO Member States to the OSCE PA, chaired by Andrei Savinykh, Head of the Parliamentary Delegation of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus to the OSCE PA.

Pyotr Tolstoy, deputy Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation and Head of the Parliamentary Delegation of the Federal Assembly to the OSCE PA, urged to resist the attempts of the Westernists to destroy the principle of consensus in the OSCE.

“The essence of what is happening is very simple. They want to squeeze us out of this organization on any pretext, deprive us of the right to vote and suppress the consensus practice of decision-making at the OSCE. If this practice is revised, as the British, the Poles, the Baltic States and other ‘friends’ of Russia insist, there will be no Russian Federation in this organization, and all allies of the Russian Federation will be put on a backburner. The prospect is absolutely clear,” said Pyotr Tolstoy.

The parliamentarian stressed that if the principle of consensus is broken, no state will be able to influence politicized decisions and called on his colleagues to vote on the issue in a consolidated manner.

“Already now we can safely say that the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly has ceased to exist as a forum where parliamentarians exchange their points of view respectfully and in a civilized manner,” said Andrei Savinykh, a Belarusian MP.

Mirlan Samykojo, deputy Chairman of the Committee on Fuel and Energy Complex, Subsoil Use and Industrial Policy of the Jogorku Kenesh of the Kyrgyz Republic and head of the OSCE PA parliamentary delegation of the Jogorku Kenesh of the Kyrgyz Republic, said that Kyrgyzstan intended to work in a consolidated matter with its colleagues from the CSTO States on the platform of the OSCE PA.