MINSK, 20 May (BelTA) – Chairman of the Standing Committee for International Affairs and National Security of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus, member of the Permanent Commission on Political Issues and International Cooperation of the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (IPA CIS) Sergei Rachkov took part in the meeting of the Permanent Commission on Political Issues and International Cooperation in Saint Petersburg, BelTA learned from the press service of the Council of the Republic.
There were 13 items on the agenda, with a focus on cooperation of the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly with international partner organizations.
Together with members of the IPA CIS Permanent Commission on Social Policy and Human Rights, the parliamentarians discussed interaction between the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in the Russian Federation and the regional office of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Russia and Belarus. Members of the permanent commissions supported the initiative to develop a draft Global Compact on Pandemics.
They also reviewed progress in fulfilling the IPA CIS recommendations on the implementation of the 1972 Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction as well as the Memorandum of Understanding between the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism and the IPA CIS. During the meeting, Kazakhstan presented the Concept of its CIS Chairmanship in 2022.
Sergei Rachkov informed the members of the commission about foreign policy documents adopted by the Council of the Republic. The senator noted that the Council of the Republic is actively responding to the information warfare unleashed by the EU and the USA against Belarus, the attempts to isolate the country and build up the sanctions pressure. In 2021, seven documents were adopted, three of which received the status of official UN documents. Four documents adopted in 2022 were sent to the parliaments of foreign countries and international organizations.
The senator called on the members of the IPA CIS permanent commission to unite efforts in countering the illegal attempts of the West to interfere in internal affairs and to pus for the implementation of the provisions of the UN Charter. The parliamentarians took stock of the results of the sessions of international parliamentary organizations (PACE, IPU, OSCE PA, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean) and analyzed coordination of actions of parliamentary delegations of the CIS member states in these organizations.
Sergei Rachkov also reviewed the work of the 144th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union that took place in Nusa Dua, Indonesia on 20-24 March. The senator noted that the delegations of the CIS states do not fully use the coordination mechanism to respond to attacks and unfriendly initiatives, to promote constructive proposals on the platforms of inter-parliamentary organizations. In this regard, he called on creating a clear mechanism for coordinating the work of the CIS delegations, maintaining contacts between their leaders, holding working meetings, and more actively using the Eurasia Group in the IPU.
The participants of the meeting took stock of the results of the work of the IPA CIS Permanent Commission on Political Affairs and International Cooperation in 2021, the election of the chairperson and deputy chairs, the provisional agenda and the date of the next meeting.
On the sidelines of the meeting, Sergei Rachkov met with Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Konstantin Kosachev to discuss bilateral cooperation, including inter-parliamentary contacts, coordination of positions on international parliamentary platforms.
