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On March 18, the deputy of the RA NA Civil Contract Faction Aleksey Sandikov took part in the meeting of the CSTO PA Standing Commission on Political Affairs and International Cooperation held in Saint Petersburg.

The deputy gave a speech in the meeting, noting:

“ Colleagues,

As you all know, the meeting of our C ommittee should be held on March 11, in Yerevan. However, due to the snap elections and the procedural issues related to the inauguration ceremony of the RA President at the special sitting of the parliament of the country, we proposed to postpone the outgoing meeting of the C ommittee to autumn of this year. So, we are waiting for you in Yerevan in October-November of this year.

Last year, Armenia assumed the Chairmanship of the CSTO. In general, I would like to inform you about the priorities of the Republic of Armenia, which were presented in detail by the RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at the meeting of the Collective Security Council in September of the last year.

The Republic of Armenia pays key attention to the deepening of foreign policy coordination and mutual assistance for the development of coordinated approaches to international and regional issues affecting the interests of the CSTO Member States. We have always been guided by the principle of the need for the comparison and harmonization of positions on the most important issues to the CSTO Member States.

We consider it necessary to develop military cooperation between the CSTO States in order to increase the combat readiness, unity and mobility of the collective security forces. Our efforts are aimed at working out issues, modernizing and improving proposals, taking measures and using mechanisms for ensuring information security, combating terrorism and extremism, illegal migration and drugs.

I would like to note with satisfaction that appropriate steps have already been taken in many priority directions: it is about the crisis response mechanisms. As you know, at the beginning of that year, taking into account the call of the President of Kazakhstan Mr. Tokayev, Armenia, as the presiding country in the CSTO, initiated emergency consultations with the leaders of the states of the Organization, as a result of which, the prime Minister Pashinyan announced his decision to send the CSTO peacekeeping forces to Kazakhstan. We have always believed that the CSTO crisis response mechanism should work properly. Armenia was in a situation, where we expected the mechanisms to work, but, unfortunately, that did not happen. According to the Kazakh side, the existence of a peacekeeping mission made it possible to release a significant part of the Kazakh forced and the means of direct counter-terrorism operations. We can state a high level mutual understanding between the CSTO Member States on the situation in Kazakhstan, the leaders of our countries stressed the importance and demand for the peacekeeping mission.

I will also note that in the context of modernization of crisis response mechanisms, the mechanisms of monitoring, forecast and prevention of crisis situations have demand.

In the sphere of public diplomacy, we shall state that Armenia makes efforts for further strengthening of the image of the organization in the international arena, including the expansion of cooperation with other international organizations. In this respect the role of our parliamentarians is considerable.

I would like to especially underline the role of the parliamentary plain of the Organization, through which the priorities of the Republic of Armenia are the convergence and harmonization of the national legislations of the CSTO Member States, taking into consideration the new challenges and threats in the security sphere, as well as the digital, economic, financial, ecological and humanitarian ones. It is also necessary to make all efforts for continuing and activating the institutional development of the Parliamentary Assembly. In this context, we observe the proposal of the important and timely improvement of the structure of the CSTO PA.

As you see, this year we keep the continuity of the Organization’s activities, work is done for the implementation of the pre-indicated goals, agreements and the solution of the problems by the heads of our states.

In the end, I would like to touch upon a number of events of the CSTO PA. As you know, the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia made a proposal to celebrate the 15^th anniversary of the Parliamentary Assembly and holding the jubilee meeting of the CSTO PA Council in Yerevan. It will take place on April 29 of this year. The Coordination consultation of Chairs of the Committees on Defense and Security of parliaments of the CSTO Member States adjacent to the CSTO PA is designed in the second half of the year. And as I have already noted, in autumn we are inviting you to the outgoing meeting. I would like to assure you that the Republic of Armenia will make all necessary efforts for implementing the important initiatives and events scheduled in this jubilee year.”