CSTO PA lawmaking experience sparks interest among other Eurasian integration associations

At the 2022 St Petersburg International Economic Forum, at a session ASEAN – EAEU – SCO: Integration Segment of the Greater European Partnership, Sergei Pospelov, Head of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly, Candidate of Economic Sciences, spoke about the experience of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly in model lawmaking in the area of economic security.
In his speech, the CSTO PA Executive Secretary noted the fact of the dramatically increasing role of East-West and South-North trade corridors.
As a rule, these corridors pass through the territory of the EAEU (and, accordingly, the CSTO).
“This means not only increased investment in the infrastructure of transport corridors, but also an increasing role in ensuring regional security,” stressed Sergei Pospelov, recalling, as an example, that if the CSTO and SCO countries had harmonized their legislation on public health security by 2020, we would not have been “forced to close economic space between countries during the pandemic and would have kept a common market, and this is a huge economic benefit.”
“Obviously, the most important condition for the formation of a great Eurasian partnership is the harmonization and convergence of the legislation of the ASEAN, EAEU and SCO countries, the formation of the so-called ‘Eurasian law.’”
The CSTO PA Executive Secretary said that a lot of work in this direction was carried out within the EAEU, internal regulatory framework of the Eurasian Economic Union was being developed; in addition, there were free trade zone agreements in place with Vietnam, Iran, a non-preferential trade agreement with China, with a similar agreement being drafted with several SCO and ASEAN countries.
Sergei Pospelov is convinced: “As the international legal framework for cooperation between the ASEAN countries, the EAEU and the SCO develops, the task of harmonizing the national laws of the countries of the greater partnership with it becomes increasingly relevant.”
In order to accelerate these processes, “it is important to develop and strengthen interparliamentary cooperation within the framework of the Greater Eurasian Partnership, building on the existing interparliamentary organizations, increasing interaction between legislators.”
Sergei Pospelov reminded that ASEAN had a parliamentary assembly, while neither the Eurasian Economic Union nor the Shanghai Cooperation Organization had a parliamentary component.
“CSTO Parliamentary Assembly can really help these organizations in harmonization and approximation of the legislation,” Sergei Pospelov said recalling that all CSTO Member States are the members or observers in SCO, and five of them have also established the Eurasian Economic Union.
“And the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly develops good working relations with the parliaments of other SCO and ASEAN countries,” said the CSTO PA Executive Secretary.
“No less relevant for the Greater Eurasian Partnership is the regulatory framework developed in the CSTO PA on countering threats to information security, modern combined forms of destructive impact on the CSTO Member States and ensuring their digital sovereignty,” stressed Sergey Pospelov, mentioning the model acts On Information Security, On Protection of Critical Information Infrastructure, Safe Use of the Internet, Financial Measures Against Money Laundering, etc.
“All the above-mentioned model laws and recommendations were adopted by the six countries of the Greater Eurasian Partnership and implemented in their national legislations,” the CSTO PA Executive Secretary stressed.
“In mid-term, it is urgently required to address legal aspects of such problems as information and cyber security, security of financial and other economic systems, the use of artificial intelligence, non-proliferation of weapons in outer space, environmental, energy and food security,” noted Sergei Pospelov, stating that “the current CSTO PA agenda coincides with the tasks of the Greater Eurasian Partnership in many respects. Above all, this is true about the drafting of model regulations concerning various aspects of economic security: combating the uncontrolled spread of cryptoassets and other electronic payment surrogates that undermine national financial systems, the use of artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and digitalization.
Therefore, according to Sergei Pospelov, even today the activities of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly contribute to the development of the Eurasian law, approximation and harmonization of laws of the Eurasian Union, ASEAN and SCO countries.
“As part of legal agenda, we intend to strengthen interaction with the Eurasian Economic Commission, the SCO structures and the ASEAN Parliamentary Assembly,” said the CSTO PA Executive Secretary.