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On June 28, Eduard Aghajanyan, the Chair of the RA NA Standing Committee on Foreign Relations, the Head of the NA delegation to the OSCE PA, chaired an online coordinating meeting of the heads of delegations of the CSTO member states to the OSCE PA – Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Russian Federation and Tajikistan.

From the Armenian side, the RA NA permanent representative to the CSTO PA Hayk Chilingaryan was present at the meeting.

Welcoming the guests and approving the agenda, Eduard Aghajanyan noted that the purpose of the online working meeting is to coordinate a common position on a number of urgent issues (international policy and security, mutual support), taking into account the interests and the obligations of the states within the framework of the CSTO.

It was noted that Armenia received the CSTO Chairmanship last year. The Armenian delegation expresses the will of the parliaments of the CSTO member states, to continue the practice of regular meetings in the field of the OSCE PA.

It was also mentioned that several significant events took place in Yerevan in June: the meetings of the CSTO PA Council, the CSTO Council of Foreign Ministers and the CSTO Security Council Secretaries.

Eduard Aghajanyan informed that the issues of the organization were discussed in detail in different formats, the work was analyzed, further steps were outlined.

“We will be faithful to the high standard in the parliamentary field and we will supplement the existing agreements with concrete content due to our joint efforts, thus increasing the contribution of the CSTO PA to the strengthening and expansion of multilateral cooperation between our countries,” the Head of the NA delegation to the OSCE PA noted and added that appreciating the ongoing processes, it is necessary to ensure closer cooperation in international structures.

Eduard Aghajanyan presented to the colleagues the proposals and remarks of the RA National Assembly on the issues which should be discussed at the forthcoming OSCE PA session in Birmingham. In particular, one of the proposals relates to the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs.

“We proposed to supplement the draft resolutions of the OSCE PA Committee on Political Affairs and Security and the Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions with the points where we draw attention to unresolved humanitarian issues: the immediate release and return of all Armenian persons held in Azerbaijan, as well as the preservation of Armenian cultural and religious heritage in the territories under the Azerbaijani control, in particular, the implementation of the UNESCO technical mission,” Eduard Aghajanyan said.

Covering the agenda issues, the online meeting ended.