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YEREVAN , MARCH 11. The visiting sitting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO PA) Council began the work in Yerevan.

The parliamentary delegations of Armenia, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and the parliamentary delegation of Serbia in the status of an observer took part in the visiting sitting.

The Chairman of the CSTO PA Council Sergey Narishkin presided over the sitting and presented the agenda of the sitting. Sergey Narishkin highly assessed the tradition of holding visiting sittings in the CSTO member states, adding that it lets the parliamentarians to get acquainted with the military sub-structure of the allied states. He expressed his gratitude to the Armenian side for the warm hospitality.

Mr Narishkin touched upon the importance of the fight against international terrorism, in that context the problem of Syria, noting that by the support of the international community it will be possible to eradicate such formations. Today he considered troublesome the continuous shelling to the direction of Syria from Turkey and other actions of Turkey, which are aimed at destabilizing the situation in that highly explosive territory. “And Armenia, with its geographical position being near the international tension centre, plays a special role in the CSTO, and we should take into consideration its experience, including the parliamentary experience in providing security,” the Chairman of the CSTO PA Council said. In his word, in the conditions of terrorism, globalization, migration, drug business the CSTO proposes wide scale cooperation also with other regional organizations, among them the OSCE and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation plays a peculiar role.

Afterwards the attendees considered and confirmed the agenda items of the sitting.

The CSTO General Secretary Nikolay Bordyuzha presented the report on the Means of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation Aimed at the Counteraction in the Activities of Terrorist and Extremist Organisations in Modern Conditions. The use of the joint efforts of the CSTO member states in the fight against terrorism, the organisation and the holding of the anti-terrorist events were highlighted. The issue of providing an asylum to the refugees and the problems of the universal legislative basis directed to the counteraction of the activities of the terrorist and extremist organisations was touched upon, and the situation created as a consequence of the Syrian crisis was also talked about.

The Head of the RA NA Delegation to the CSTO PA Eduard Sharmazanov delivered a speech on the procedure of the implementation of the priorities of the chairmanship of Armenia to the CSTO in 2015-2016. “We permanently made statements and continued doing it for the benefit of all problems, exclusively for the peaceful settlement of the NK conflict in the OSCE Minsk Group format – based on three well-known principles. Military rhetoric, use of force or threat of force should not only be inadmissible, but also condemned by everybody. Calling a spade a spade is of vital importance for our organization. We would succeed to prevent the repetition of such threats only in that case,” Mr Sharmazanov said.

The RA Permanent and Plenipotentiary Representative to the CSTO Davit Virabyan and the Head of the Defense Policy of the RA Ministry of Defense Levon Ayvazyan delivered speeches on military-political situation in Caucasus. It was noted that the world challenges have an immediate impact on the regional military-political situation, and the settlement of the NK conflict was touched upon. In this context it has been stated that though Armenia is always for the settlement of the conflict through peaceful and negotiating means, nevertheless Azerbaijan moves the problem into military plane. The reporters touched upon the regional security problems in the context of Armenia-EEC relations and overcoming of the Syrian crisis.

The Head of the RA NA Delegation to the OSCE PA Artashes Geghamyan delivered a speech on the activities of the Parliamentary Delegations of the CSTO PA member states to the OSCE PA in 2016, particularly, on the results of the working meetings of the heads of the parliamentary delegations of the CSTO PA member states to the OSCE PA and the participation of the CSTO PA delegations in the works of the OSCE PA Annual Session. He has expressed hope that the problems raised by the Heads of our countries within the framework of the 70^th Jubilee Session of the UN General Assembly will be stressed in the OSCE PA Annual Session to be held in Tbilisi in future. Artashes Geghamyan highlighted the cooperation of the delegations of the CSTO and the OSCE member states in a number of issues. Mr Geghamyan also talked about Armenia-Russia, Armenia-Turkey relations.

The Chairman of the CSTO PA Permanent Commission on Political Issues and International Cooperation Khosrov Harutyunyan talked about the preparation of the hearings on the means directed to the international political current situation and the development problems in the CSTO responsible zone, the collective security and the further improvement of its legal provision system.

Issues on the improvement of the CSTO PA activities and the other organizational issues were also debated, which introduced to the participants of the sitting the CSTO PA Deputy Responsible Secretary Vladimir Bondurovsky.

The participants also discussed the venue, terms and agenda of the CSTO PA Council next sitting and the CSTO PA Ninth Plenary Session. They made a decision to hold the sittings in Saint Petersburg, in autumn of 2016.

The representatives of the Serbian Parliamentary Delegation presented the inner-political situation of Serbia and talked about the relations with NATO.

After approving all debated reports the CSTO PA Council ended the work of the visiting sitting.

After the sitting the Chairman of the CSTO PA Council Sergey Narishkin and the Head of the RA NA Delegation to the CSTO PA Eduard Sharmazanov presented the debated agenda items and summed up the results of the sitting to the media representatives.