Vladimir SHAMANOV on the input of parliaments in ensuring international security.

Vladimir SHAMANOV, Chairman of the Coordination Meeting of Chairmen of Committees (Commissions) on Defence and Security of the parliaments of CSTO member states under the Council of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Defence Committee, spoke about the results of 2019 and prospects for parliamentary cooperation within the Collective Security Treaty Organization in 2020:
“Working with parliamentary structures of the Collective Security Treaty Organization Member States in the area of defence and security, we held two retreat sessions of the Coordination Meeting in 2019. One was held in spring in Bishkek, where we considered the issues in association with completion of preparations and carrying out of the CSTO military exercises at training grounds in the Kyrgyz Republic. There, we discussed issues related to the assessment of regional security.
The second meeting was held on October 28–29 in Dushanbe, where special attention was paid to the assessment of the situation in the Central Asian region, primarily in Afghanistan; and to future scenarios and their possible impact on the situation in the CSTO Member States located in its immediate vicinity.
Representatives of the security agencies of the Republic of Tajikistan have fully described to us the progress dynamics of the last three years and expressed their assumptions about the probable developments in the near future.
There we also accepted the proposal of our colleagues from the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia to hold a Coordination Meeting in Armenia next year, in 2020, in order to get acquainted with the specificities of this area of interaction and to assess the conflict potential and CSTO’s prospects of increasing stability in this complicated region.
Let me stress that based on the instructions given to us by our heads of state and our parliaments, based on the current assessment of the events, strengthening of the role of the national legislative structures in the activities aimed at the stabilization of the international situation is evident.
This is facilitated by the Russian Federation’s return to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, by the significantly increased bilateral contacts between parliamentary structures and by the regional security conferences, in particular, the one on security issues in the Middle East, which was held in Istanbul in 2019.”​