Visit of the Delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE PA) to the PABSEC International Secretariat, Istanbul, 11 November 2021
On 11 November 2021, a high-level delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE PA), composed of Ms. Margareta Cederfelt, President of the OSCE PA (Sweden), OSCE PA Vice-Presidents Messrs Azay Guliyev (Azerbaijan) and Reinhold Lopatka (Austria), Mr. Loic Poulain, Adviser to the OSCE PA President, Ms. Freyja Koci, Adviser to the OSCE PA Secretary General, and Mr. Tim Knoblau, Deputy Head of the OSCE PA Vienna Office, visited the PABSEC International Secretariat in Istanbul and met with Mr. Asaf Hajiyev, PABSEC Secretary General.
Mr. Asaf Hajiyev, PABSEC Secretary General, thanked the distinguished guests for the visit and briefly presented them the main directions of the Assembly’s activities, as well as the structure and work of its bodies. He particularly emphasized the peculiarities of the Wider Black Sea Region, and the possibilities and prospects of the economic cooperation among the member countries. The PABSEC Secretary General noted the importance of preserving and strengthening universal human values and of building democratic societies. He also noted that the Assembly is concerned with such topical issues as combating corruption, the refugee problem, climate change and green energy.
Ms. Margareta Cederfelt, President of the OSCE PA, thanked Mr. Hajiyev for organizing the meeting and expressed the readiness for closer cooperation with the PABSEC in the future. She highly appreciated the achievements of the PABSEC in enhancing relations in the Black Sea region and stressed the importance of the flexible parliamentary cooperation and mutual understanding, especially in the extraordinary pandemic conditions. The OSCE PA President underlined the importance of achieving such goals as gender equality and addressing women's problems.
Mr. Azay Guliyev, OSCE PA Vice-President, emphasised the importance of inter-parliamentary meetings, where the exchange of views and experience on various issues takes place and proposed to actively use the mechanism of joint events on various issues of mutual interest.
Mr. Reinhold Lopatka, OSCE PA Vice-President, expressed interest in the cooperation in the Black Sea region and touched upon the issue regarding the attitude to democracy as a universal human value in different countries.
Within the framework of the meeting, the possibilities of strengthening the cooperation between the two organizations were discussed, and in this context, it was agreed to hold a joint event in the first half of 2022.
The meeting was also attended by Mr. Miltiadis Makrygiannis, PABSEC Deputy Secretary General, and Ms. Natia Gaprindashvili, Adviser to the Secretary General - Press Secretary.