Commonwealth MPs Discussed Current Situation in Middle East

On 21 May, Saint Petersburg hosted a meeting of the Permanent Commission of the Interparliamentary Assembly of the CIS on Political Issues and International Cooperation.

The event was opened by Secretary General of the Council of the Interparliamentary Assembly of the CIS Dmitriy Kobitskiy.

Deputy Chair of the Committee of the Jogorku Kenesh of the Kyrgyz Republic on International Affairs, Defence, Security and Migration Cholpon Esemanova and Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Konstantin Kosachev were elected deputy chairs of the Permanent Commission.

The Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly addressed the participants on role of parliaments in shaping architecture of Eurasian security.

He stressed that the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and OSCE Parliamentary Assembly are currently experiencing profound crisis. In his opinion, Eurasia lacks unifying regulatory and institutional frameworks enabling collective solutions to issues of common security. Since 2023, Belarus has annually hosted Minsk Conference on Security to discuss prospects for establishing Eurasian security system amid crisis of world order. Russia supported Belarusian initiatives.

The Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly explained that idea of creating architecture of Eurasian security, which should be pursued, consists of establishing dialogue mechanism aimed at preventing conflicts and strengthening confidence-building measures, including participation of Europeans in future agreements.

Chair of the Standing Committee of the Council of Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus on International Affairs and National Security Sergey Aleynik proposed submitting issue of preparing statement on architecture of Eurasian security for consideration at next meeting of the commission.

Konstantin Kosachev also spoke about history of cultural and educational project “Memory Train” and plans for its implementation this year.

Main topic of the meeting was current situation in Middle East.

Head of the Regional Delegation of International Committee of the Red Cross in Russian Federation and Republic of Belarus Rania Mashlab presented report on humanitarian situation in Middle East.

Regional Legal Coordinator for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, International Committee of the Red Cross Regional Delegation in the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus Zhala Azizova presented Global Initiative to Galvanize Political Commitment to International Humanitarian Law.

The initiative, launched in 2024 by more than 150 countries, aims to strengthen priority of compliance with existing norms without creating new legislation. Key proposals include protection of medical institutions and civilian data in cyberspace, as well as establishment of safe maritime corridors to prevent famine among civilian population. By 2026, work on initiative will result in political declaration consolidating necessity of introducing culture of humanity into national legislation and military instructions at all stages of conflict.

Members of the commission were presented information on interim results of international conference “Legislative Regulation of the Use of Artificial Intelligence and New Technologies for Counter-Terrorism and the Prevention of Radicalism and Extremism”.

During the meeting, participants approved results of work for 2025 and also heard reports on outcomes of the 152nd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the 16th Plenary Session of the Asian Parliamentary Assembly.