A Council of the Republic’s delegation participated in an international conference in Moscow

On January 20, 2005 a delegation of the Republic of Belarus National Assembly Council of the Republic composed of Mr. Nikolai Cherginets (head of the delegation), Chairman of the Council of the Republic Standing Committee for Foreign Affairs and National Security, and Mr. Valery Bashmetov (member of the delegation), Deputy Chairman of the Council of the Republic Standing Committee for Legislation and State Administration took part in the international conference “The place and role of the Collective Security Agreement Organisation (CSAO) in the emerging architecture of international security: prospects of development” which was held in Moscow.

The participants discussed vital problems of cooperation among CSAO member-states with a view to facing outside challenges and threats and preserving stability in the Eurasian region.

In his statement Mr. Nikolai Cherginets drew the participants’ attention to the need for taking into consideration the current geopolitical situation in the context of NATO’s enlargement as its infrastructures will be deployed in close proximity of the western borders of the CSAO member-states. Besides, the leader of the Belarusian parliamentary delegation invited the member-states to enhance Organisation’s cooperation with NATO and OSCE, Western European Union Assembly — European Security and Defence Inter-Parliamentary Assembly as well as with the Shanghai Organisation of Cooperation. He also stressed the necessity to bear in mind the useful experience of policy coordination between the Armed Forces of Russia and those of Belarus in the framework of their regional combined force.

The Conference adopted a set of recommendations and endorsed the Statutes of the CSAO Science and Expert Council.