MINSK, 23 August (BelTA) – Chairman of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Belarusian parliament, Vladimir Andreichenko took part in the first plenary session of the 42nd General Assembly of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA). The session is taking place on 23-25 August in the format of videoconferencing. It is hosted by the Parliament of Brunei Darussalam, the current chair of the AIPA. The event is themed “Forging Parliamentary Cooperation in Digital Inclusion towards ASEAN Community 2025”, BelTA learned from the press service of the House of Representatives.
During the first plenary session, Vladimir Andreichenko made a presentation. “First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to the Parliament of Brunei Darussalam chairing the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly, for arranging the 42nd General Assembly. We are all witnessing how fast the modern world is changing. The selfishness of political elites in individual Western countries is causing increased tensions in various parts of the world. This only exacerbates the problems associated with climate change, socio-economic and technological inequality. In this regard, ASEAN's policy based on such principles as non-interference in the domestic affairs of other states, refusal to use force, and peaceful settlement of disputes, becomes particularly useful,” Vladimir Andreichenko said.
According to him, the "Code of Conduct" of the ASEAN countries is consonant with the foreign policy of Belarus and is a good basis for addressing many issues by joint efforts. "We need to find the points of alignment between various integration associations. Given Belarus' chairmanship in the Commonwealth of Independent States in the year of its 30th anniversary, given our work in the Eurasian Economic Union, we attach special importance to mutually beneficial projects. Among them is cooperation to set up common digital ecosystems and a belt of digital good-neighborliness. These are significant topics for joint international work. We already have certain experience and developments in these areas," the speaker said.
Vladimir Andreichenko added: "The CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly provides information and legal support for the digital development of society, including for the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union. In the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, we are promoting the projects to develop the digital economy and strategic forecasting in science, technology and innovation for sustainable development. We are open to engaging with fellow members from the AIPA on these and other topics. To determine the specific avenues of such cooperation, we propose to hold an ASEAN-Belarus inter-parliamentary forum in Minsk. We also propose to formalize the outcomes of this event in the outcome declaration "On international information ecosystems and a belt of digital good-neighborliness. Such a forum will also be our joint step towards the implementation of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy. We are ready to work in this direction with our colleagues in the Inter-Parliamentary Union as well. Only together we will succeed in building the future for our countries and peoples.”
The parliament of the Republic of Belarus has had the observer status in the AIPA since 2011 and has actively cooperated with this inter-parliamentary structure. The work has been carried out through the delegations of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus on the implementation of contacts with the AIPA, which were set up in the parliament of the Republic of Belarus of the fourth to seventh convocations. Representatives of the Belarusian parliament regularly participate in the meetings of the General Assemblies of the AIPA, ensuring the positive dynamics of the inter-parliamentary dialogue both with the organization and with the ASEAN member states.
