Vyacheslav Volodin, head of the CSTO PA: “We need to expand the list of observers and partners with the Organization, building relationships based on friendship, mutual respect and trust.”

A meeting of the Council of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, chaired by Vyacheslav Volodin, is taking place in the Hall of Columns of the House of the Unions in Moscow.
Opening the meeting, Vyacheslav Volodin, Speaker of the State Duma, welcomed all Council members and parliamentary delegations of CSTO Member States: “This year marks the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Collective Security Treaty and the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the CSTO based on it. In the Statement of the Collective Security Council of the Organization adopted on the occasion of these dates, our leaders noted the importance of developing the parliamentary dimension. We have a lot to deliver,” stressed the Speaker of the State Duma.
Vyacheslav Volodin also welcomed Nurlanbek Shakiev, the new Speaker of the Jogorku Kenesh of the Kyrgyz Republic, who is attending his first CSTO PA Council meeting.
The meeting agenda included the presentation of 10 draft model acts. A total of 72 model laws and recommendations have been adopted in 16 years by the Organization, in which connection the Speaker of the State Duma noted a significant increase in the work of the CSTO PA: “Our relevant commissions and the parliaments of our Member States made a great input into the preparation of the model acts, which demonstrates a will to find common ground based on consensus.”
Vyacheslav Volodin also stressed that the peacekeeping operation in Kazakhstan in January 2022 proved the effectiveness of the Organization’s Collective Force.
Furthermore, he noted a growing “list of observers and partners with the Organization, building relationships based on friendship, mutual respect and trust.”
The meeting is attended by the heads of parliament of the CSTO Member States: The National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia; the Council of the Republic and the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus; the Majilis and the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan; the Jogorku Kenesh of the Kyrgyz Republic; the Federation Council and the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation; and the Majlisi Namoyandagon of the Majlisi Oli of the Republic of Tajikistan.