Sergei Gavrilov
Sergey Anatolievich
was
unanimously re-elected President of the organization, despite opinions expressed
after the conflict in Georgia that the Russian delegation at I.A.O. would experience
problems after those events. Russian representatives also chaired a number of I.A.O.
organs. Representative of the Greek Parliament Maximos Charakopoulos was
elected new I.A.O. Secretary General.
I.A.O. President Sergei Gavrilov said that the meeting participants discussed ”issues of protection of rights of Christians, development of cooperation aimed at countering the spread of the coronavirus infection, refraining from sanctions and defamation during the pandemic and the organization's work plans for 2020–2021.“ Representatives of parliaments of Orthodox countries spoke against international sanctions and aggravation of relations between countries.
“Delegation of parliamentarians from Belarus took an active part in the meeting of the General Assembly. The issues of development of state-church cooperation and strengthening of interests of the church in Belarus were discussed at the meeting. The representative of the Belarusian delegation headed one of the key I.A.O. committees — Coordinating Cooperation Committee with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of Belarus and Russia. Moreover, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of Belarus and Russia was granted the permanent observer status in the organization,” said Sergei Gavrilov.
I.A.O. President thanked Andreas Michailides, who had served as the I.A.O. Secretary General, and the International Secretariat for the fruitful cooperation.
“Our organization is one of the few inter-parliamentary institutions that continued to work actively during the pandemic and make a great contribution to the development of cooperation between Orthodox countries, strengthening social, cultural, political and economic ties. This is a great success for the organization, and we thank everyone who contributed to it,” stressed Sergei Gavrilov.
