CSTO Delegations Meet for the First Time on the Platform of the Inter-Parliamentary Union

A coordination meeting of the heads of the CSTO Member States’ parliamentary delegations to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) was held in Manama (Kingdom of Bahrain) on March 11 within the framework of the 146th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

As you may recall, the observer status of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly with the IPU was restored in autumn 2022.

At the direction of the Council, such coordination meetings will now take place on a regular basis in order to ensure mutual support, consult the interests and obligations of states concerning cooperation within the CSTO. In addition to such meetings, joint work is planned on the platform of the Eurasia Geopolitical Group established in the IPU.

Asmik Hakobyan (Armenia), Valery Belsky and Andrei Savinykh (Belarus), Yevgeny Bolgert and Lyazzat Rysbekova (Kazakhstan), Pyotr Tolstoy (Russia) and representatives of the Russian Federation Council delegation led by Konstantin Kosachev, deputy Chairman of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly, met in Manama. Gleb Bokhanovich, a representative of the Secretariat of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly, served as secretary of the meeting.

The meeting discussed topics of the general debates, draft resolutions of the general committees and the Assembly’s Governing Council session.

The parliamentarians also discussed issues of interaction and development of contacts with the parliamentary structures of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, Latin American Parliament (Parlatino) and Pan-African Parliament.

The meeting was opened and led by Valery Belsky, deputy Chairman of the Council of the Republic of Belarus, because the country is chairing the CSTO in 2023. 

Valery Belsky noted that only further strengthening of partnership associations and joint coordinated work “will make it possible to cope with risks and threats to national, regional and international security.”

The next 147th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union will be held in October 2023 in Angola. 

The IPU, which includes parliaments from 178 countries, is a sort of a discussion club on global issues.