Parlamentskaya gazeta: The parliaments of the CSTO countries will jointly fight against drug trafficking.

One of the main problems facing the Collective Security Treaty Organization Member States – Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan – is drug trafficking. It is more effective to fight this threat through joint legislative decisions, said Chairman of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly and Speaker of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin at a meeting of the CSTO PA Council in Bishkek on May 20.
Kyrgyzstan was honoured to host the events of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly, said Dastanbek Jumabekov, Speaker of the Kyrgyz Parliament, at the session. It is possible that retreat sessions will become a tradition, since it, on the one hand, increases the effectiveness of inter-parliamentary cooperation and, on the other hand, enables the hosting parliaments to talk more about their priorities, Vyacheslav Volodin believes. “It would be right to expand the geographic coverage of our official events, organizing them in different CSTO Member States. To further build on the practice of holding retreat sessions, I would like to propose, if you agree, to hold the regular session of the Council and the 12th plenary session of the CSTO PA in autumn of this year in Armenia,” Mr Volodin addressed the heads of the parliaments participating in the organization. The decision was made unanimously.
Among the topics on the agenda of the Parliamentary Assembly today, Mr Volodin highlighted combatting drug trafficking. According to the Chairman, the CSTO PA Council will hold a coordination meeting on measures to counteract the supply of Afghan drugs in autumn. “In early autumn we plan to hold a coordination meeting of chairmen of defence and security committees and commissions of the parliaments of the Organization’s Member States under our Council with the participation of the Afghanistan working group under the CSTO Council of Foreign Ministers,” he said.
In his view, the meeting will help find effective legislative solutions to combat drug trafficking in Afghanistan. "The quality of joint work to prevent threats and increase stability in the CSTO zone of responsibility depends on the creation of a common legal security space in accordance with the strategy on collective security of CSTO until 2025, adopted at the highest level," Volodin added.
Bishkek, in turn, supports advanced training of the CSTO Collective Forces. “In the sphere of the military-capacity building of the coalition, it is necessary to develop a legal foundation to establish in Member States bases with material reserves and to improve the training and use of the Collective Forces,” Kyrgyz Parliament Speaker Dastanbek Jumabekov said. The Council’s host country also proposed to finalize the legal status of the CSTO Crisis Response Centre. “In the sphere of military-economic and military-technical cooperation, attention should be paid to the development of cooperation between defence organizations and enterprises in order to ensure mutual supplies of military goods and to the creation of service centers for repair and maintenance of armaments and military equipment,” he noted.
Mr Jumabekov named improvement of cooperation between the Organization and other regional organizations, as well as countries outside the CSTO, among other priorities. Advances have already been achieved in this regard, Vyacheslav Volodin said at a meeting with Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov, and a number of countries are asking to make them observers at the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly. “Today, you spoke about the need to expand the coalition and to include those who would like to act as observers in the Parliamentary Assembly,” the speaker said. “This is extremely important because a number of countries have expressed their wish to be accepted as observers.”
He also conveyed the greetings of the Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Kyrgyz leader and stressed that the meetings of the leaders of the two countries, including the recent visit of Vladimir Putin to Bishkek, provided impetus to the relations between Moscow and Bishkek. Mr Jeenbekov, for his part, thanked Mr Volodin for his support in addressing a number of Kyrgyzstan-related issues.
Among the decisions taken at the Parliamentary Assembly’s event was the participation of a State Duma delegation observing the presidential election in Kazakhstan. Nurlan Nigmatulin, Chairman of the Majilis (lower house) of the Kazakh Parliament, reminded that the presidential election will be held on 9 June. Kazakhstan is ready to fully accommodate the work of observers, he said. “We are grateful for your initiative to send a group of CSTO PA observers to the upcoming elections. We are ready to accept the mission of the Parliamentary Assembly and fully accommodate its work, including by organizing meeting and visits to all candidates’ election headquarters, and we have seven registered candidates. Of course, on election day we will organize visits to polling stations, in line with your wishes,” he added.
Besides, there have been personnel changes in the Parliamentary Assembly: the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly Council supported Vyacheslav Volodin’s proposal to appoint Sergei Pospelov, who is currently the first deputy Chief of Staff of the State Duma, as acting CSTO Parliamentary Assembly Executive Secretary. Pyotr Ryabukhin, who holds this position, will continue his work in the CSTO PA Secretariat as deputy Executive Secretary. Mr Volodin has set a task for the new head of the Secretariat to step up the activities in the main areas of the Assembly.
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