Sergei Rachkov: Parliamentary Assembly Strengthens Political Unity of the CSTO Countries

Today, on October 7, St. Petersburg hosted a meeting of the Permanent Commission on Political Affairs and International Cooperation of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly.

The Commission reviewed issues pertaining to the implementation of the priorities of the Kyrgyz Republic's chairmanship of the CSTO in 2025, the Organization's activities between the sessions, the draft model law "On the Status of International Officials" and the progress of ratification of international treaties signed within the framework of the CSTO.

Sergei Rachkov, Chairman of the Standing Commission on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus, addressing the meeting via video call, noted that Parliamentary Assembly should strengthen political unity of the CSTO countries.

"The Parliamentary Assembly is an important political tool of the CSTO and should strengthen the political unity of Member States," Sergey Rachkov said. "Our job is to develop legislative acts to ensure the fulfillment of the functional tasks of our military and political organization."

Sergei Rachkov stressed that one of the matters on the meeting's agenda was the 2026-2030 CSTO PA Action Plan on Approximation and Harmonization of National Legislation of the CSTO Member States. "But before moving on to this matter, we summarized the results of the previous Action Plan. Over the five-year period, a lot has been done in terms of developing and adopting model laws aimed at ensuring the security and defence capabilities of the CSTO Member States. This work is progressing actively, purposefully and effectively. Therefore, our main goal now is to determine the priorities for the next five years and to begin developing and implementing new model laws that will be used by the CSTO Member States," Sergei Rachkov concluded.

The Belarusian parliamentarian shared that during the period of implementation of the first section of the 2021-2025 Action Plan "Legal support for the functioning of the collective security system of the CSTO Member States" 28 model legislative acts and recommendations were adopted by the CSTO commissions from 2021 to 2024.

The meeting participants approved the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly action plan for 2026, as well as a draft event program for the 20th anniversary of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly.