Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 31 March (BelTA) – Belarus should take advantage of the opportunities offered by the 2014 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship to promote its national interests, Chairman of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus Vladimir Andreichenko said at a session of the Council of the House of Representatives on 31 March, BelTA has learnt.

“The opportunities offered by the forthcoming ice hockey world championship should be used to promote national interests. After all, parliamentary diplomacy and informal communication are often as efficient as official meetings,” Vladimir Andreichenko said.

Speaking about plans, the Speaker noted that the priority will be given to cooperation with interparliamentary agencies of the post-Soviet states. Thus, Saint Petersburg will host meetings of the interparliamentary assemblies of the CIS and the EurAsEC, the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly in April. Besides, Brest will play host to the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Belarus-Russia Union State.

Vladimir Andreichenko drew attention to the fruitful participation of Belarusian delegations in the work of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and the Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly. “The format of these organizations was used to promote bilateral contacts. We should pay more attention to promoting cooperation with countries of Latin America and Africa,” Vladimir Andreichenko said.

Speaking about international cooperation, he added that Belarus and its partners have made some progress in implementing the agreements reached during the official visits of the President of Laos and the President of Sri Lanka to Belarus. Working groups on cooperation with these countries were set up. Draft agreements on interparliamentary cooperation were developed and are now being reconciled. “The work on them should be ramped up in order to sign agreements during the visits of the parliamentary delegations of Laos and Sri Lanka to Belarus,” the Speaker said.