It is absolutely unacceptable that the delegations of Ukraine and russia will be at the same table at the official meeting of the OSCE PA
The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ruslan Stefanchuk emphasized this during a videoconference with the President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Margareta Cederfelt.
He emphasized that the Ukrainian side is concerned about the crisis situation in which the OSCE PA found itself due to the failure of the OSCE PA Standing Committee to adopt amendments to the Assembly’s Rules of Procedure at its previous meeting in Warsaw.
The Chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament also noted that the possible presence at the winter meeting of the OSCE PA on February 23-24 in Vienna, directly on the anniversary of the beginning of a large-scale aggressive war against Ukraine, of delegations from the russian federation and belarus, who were not denied visas to attend the official OSCE event, is incomprehensible.
“It is absolutely unacceptable that the delegations of Ukraine and the russian Federation, the aggressor state, will be at the same table at an official meeting of the OSCE PA. It seems to me that this does not meet either the principles on which the OSCE is based or common sense,” emphasized Ruslan Stefanchuk.
He also drew attention to the fact that he had repeatedly appealed to his fellow parliamentarians of the OSCE PA to ensure full-scale international isolation of the kremlin regime, which unleashed a war in the center of Europe.
“I ask you to consider the possibility of applying a certain prompt solution to the current situation and propose to consider an extraordinary meeting of the Assembly Bureau in order to take a decision on postponing the winter meeting of the OSCE PA. And I have preliminary signals from our partners about their readiness to support such a proposal,” the Chairman of the Parliament of Ukraine assured his colleague and reminded him of the Resolution recently adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine with an official appeal to the OSCE PA and the parliaments of its participating States regarding the inadmissibility of participation of members of the russian parliament in the work of the Assembly’s statutory bodies.
At the end of the conversation, Ruslan Stefanchuk expressed his belief that parliamentary interaction should be based primarily on the principles of mutual respect and justice. And the Ukrainian side expects the Assembly to be ready to take responsibility and act decisively, especially when it comes to ensuring the implementation of the decision adopted by the Assembly during the summer session of 2022.
“I urge you to intensify your efforts to organize the process of the Standing Committee’s adoption of a decision that will allow the parliamentary delegation of the aggressor country that violates the state sovereignty and territorial integrity of another state to cease participation in the work of the Assembly’s bodies. I believe that this would be fair and fully consistent with the mission of the OSCE as an international organization,” the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine emphasized.