Dear Colleagues,
Once again, I would like to greet you here, in Moscow, at the meeting of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly and express my gratitude for the active work within our Assembly. I would like to note that the delegations of the parliaments-observers to the PA CSTO, National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, as well as representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of Belarus and Russia, are taking part in the meeting.
Our today's agenda includes issues of parliamentary cooperation in the areas of security, the fight against terrorism and extremism, and the countering of contemporary challenges and threats. The relevance of these issues is confirmed by the current situation near the borders of the CSTO. First of all, we are talking about Syria and the countries of Central Asia.
I would
like to note that 95% of Syrian territory is liberated from terrorist
organizations. Today, the Syrian life is entering a peaceful course: refugees
are returning home, infrastructure is being restored. However, Dear Colleagues,
as you see, those forces that are aimed at increase of tensions are not calming
down, and, accordingly, we see that provocations are continuing in Syria. These
provocations are also connected with the attempt to disrupt the restoring
peaceful life, they are aimed at destabilizing everything that has been
achieved today. Our task is to do everything to prevent the escalation of tension on the Syrian land, understanding
the responsibility for solving the tasks of restoring peaceful life in Syria, to do everything for the world not to become involved in those provocations that
are often organized today on Syrian land in order to thwart all the agreements
and plunge Syria again into the chaos of war.
Colleagues,
understanding this, we shall fight back within the framework of inter-parliamentary
structures and national parliaments not to recur what happened on the Syrian
land — blood, suffering, refugees. We shall be aware of this and do everything
we can to ensure that peaceful life returns to the citizens of Syria and to the Syrian land.
Colleagues, along with these issues, I would like to note the growth of the terrorist threat on the territory of Afghanistan, associated with the intensification of ISIL (banned in the Russian Federation, editorial comment) activities, and other terrorist organizations. All this takes place in the immediate vicinity of the southern borders of the Republic of Tajikistan, the CSTO member country.
Under these conditions, our interaction within the CSTO, including within the parliamentary dimension, acquires great importance. We need to find common legislative approaches to solving security problems, develop mechanisms, respond quickly to crisis situations.
We continue to work to bring together and harmonize the national legislation of the CSTO member states in accordance with the CSTO Collective Security Strategy adopted by the leaders of our countries until 2025. The main task is the formation of a single legal space in the security sphere on the territory of our countries.
About 50 international agreements have been concluded within the framework of the Organization; ratification procedures have been completed for most of the documents.
Today at the plenary meeting we will consider in accordance with the previously adopted agenda and, I hope, adopt the following:
- three model laws of the CSTO: “On ensuring national security”, “On security of critical infrastructure”, “On information counteraction terrorism and extremism”;
- four recommendations on the harmonization and improvement of the legislation of the CSTO member states, including: the sphere of activities of emergency services; intellectual property rights protection; development, production, maintenance and destruction of weapons and military equipment; recognition of organizations as terrorist organizations.
The Law “On information counteraction terrorism and extremism”, is extremely important, as it solves the problem of countering the ideas of terrorism and extremism in the information space, provides security of citizens of our countries.
I would also like to note the recommendations on recognizing organizations as terrorist organizations.
We have been working on this document for two years. The basis for the implementation of the CSTO Collective Security Council decision of October 14, 2016 “On the formation of a single list of organizations recognized as terrorist organizations” is formed with its adoption.
Colleagues, I will once again emphasize the special importance of the work for ensuring the collective security of our countries. On the one hand, security services of the CSTO member states have the opportunity to upgrade their cooperation. On the other hand, we remove legislative gaps when an organization recognized as terrorist in one of the CSTO countries, it could legally exist in the other country.
The Concept of normative legal regulation of ensuring the security of important international events in the CSTO member states will also be in demand. Russia and other countries of the Treaty have held several times major international forums, and we will be able to share the experience of their successful and, most importantly, safe organization.
Dear colleagues!
We need to build effective coordination within the framework of the parliamentary dimension of the CSTO member states on international platforms. I am referring to our traditional formats, such as the OSCE PA. I just said that we took the decision that requires a different level of interaction from us for the discussion of issues within the OSCE PA, upholding the objectives and previous decisions in the framework of the CSTO PA, as well as within the CSTO, if these decisions are made by our countries. And, of course, colleagues, we would like to support a new inter – parliamentary platform- Meeting of Speakers of Eurasian Countries’ Parliaments, the next meeting will be held in Kazakhstan in 2019. And I wish all of us took part in its work.
We are actively developing partnership relations between the CSTO PA and the SCO member states. We are open for cooperation with all international organizations interested in joint solution of security issues, countering emerging threats and challenges.
Inter-parliamentary cooperation is an important part of inter-state relations within the CSTO. We must ensure the legislative implementation of the decisions taken by the leaders of our countries in the parliamentary dimension. And for this, it is necessary that these issues be on our priority agenda.
I suggest, colleagues, that during today's meeting we discuss more closely these and other issues on the agenda adopted by the Council. I wish you productive work! Thank you!
