MINSK, 15 April (BelTA) - International terrorism remains a major security problem, Chairperson of the Federation Council of the Russian Federal Assembly Valentina Matviyenko told the media on the sidelines of the international parliamentary conference "Global Challenges and Threats in the Face of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Terrorism and Violent Extremism." The web-based forum has been organized by the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly in cooperation with the parliamentary assemblies of the OSCE, the Council of Europe, the Mediterranean and the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism, BelTA has learned.
"International terrorism, unfortunately, remains one of the major security challenges today. The coronavirus pandemic, that started a year ago, has become a new factor that has made the task of countering terrorism threat even more difficult. In these difficult conditions, it is even more important to strengthen international cooperation mechanisms, increase their efficiency and effectiveness, and improve the legislative support of security on a global scale," Valentina Matviyenko said.
According to her, this is not the first meeting on anti-terrorism issues. "The current conference is a logical continuation of the events that we held in 2017 and 2019. Today I am happy to welcome our traditional partners as its co-organizers," Valentina Matviyenko said. The pandemic has had an impact not only on the specifics of anti-terrorism work but also on the format of our conference, which is held as a video conference . But I am sure that this will not affect in any way the effectiveness of our work."
Belarus' parliamentary delegation oheaded by Chairperson of the Council of the Republic Natalya Kochanova is also taking part in the conference.
The conference is running thematic sessions on the legal mechanisms of international cooperation in countering terrorism and violent extremism; on assessing a terrorist threat and efforts to prevent violent extremism; on promoting and protecting the rights of victims of terrorism and meeting their needs; on democracy in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
