In accordance with the program of events, the meeting of the Standing Committee was held on November 3, the meeting of the Mediterranean Forum and a parliamentary conference on “Current Security Challenges: Focus on Afghanistan” were held on November 4.
During the meeting of the Standing Committee of the OSCE PA, the reports of the President of the OSCE PA, the Treasurer of the OSCE PA, the Secretary General were presented, and the activities of the OSCE PA and current political issues were discussed.
The OSCE PA Special Representatives also reported to the members of the Standing Committee on their activities and plans, in particular on the OSCE PA's focus on the Arctic, the participation of civil society in its work and the fight against corruption.
In her report, OSCE PA President Margareta Soderfelt (Sweden) outlined the main priorities and areas of activity since her election last July, as well as meetings with the Speakers of the Parliaments of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova and Ukraine.
As part of the debate on general political issues during the meeting of the Standing Committee, Head of the Permanent Delegation of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to the OSCE PA Mykita Poturayev informed the audience about the security situation in eastern Ukraine and in the waters of the Black and Azov Seas, the blocking of the work of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission by Russian mercenaries and problematic issues related to the implementation of the Minsk Agreements.
The Head of the Ukrainian parliamentary delegation paid attention to the holding of a pseudo-vote and elections to the State Duma of the Russian Federation on September 17-19, 2021 in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine, and recalled the Statement of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, in which the Ukrainian Parliament calls on foreign parliaments and international parliamentary organizations to give due assessment to the rigged parliamentary elections in the Russian Federation, the facts of illegal voting in the illegally occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol, as well as participation in these elections of citizens of Ukraine from the part of the territories in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation.
On November 4, the members of the Permanent Delegation continued their participation in the meetings of the Mediterranean Forum and the Parliamentary Conference on “Current Security Challenges: Focus on Afghanistan.”
The key issues discussed during the two events were: the impact of climate change on the security of the region, on illegal migration, enhanced cooperation of OSCE participating States from the Mediterranean, the new Taliban policy in Afghanistan and its impact on the security of neighboring countries, and a possible humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.