OSCE PA anti-terrorism committee members to visit Russia, U.S. in 2018 - State Duma vice-speaker
MOSCOW. Oct 5 (Interfax) - Members of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly's Ad Hoc Committee on Countering Terrorism, which was established at Russia's initiative, will visit Russia and the United States in 2018, Pyotr Tolstoy, the head of Russia's delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly meeting in Andorra and State Duma Vice-Speaker, said in a statement on Wednesday.
"Official visits to a number of countries, among them the United States and Canada, are planned for the beginning of 2018," the statement said.
The ad hoc committee was established at the previous meeting of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in Minsk at the proposal of Russia. The autumn OSCE PA meeting, which is taking place in Andorra, included the first sitting of the committee.
The committee chairman is due to participate in a seminar in Morocco in 2017; the seminar will be dedicated to the spread of violent extremism in the OSCE region and ways to prevent the recruitment of youth by terrorist organizations. Committee members are scheduled to pay an official visit to the OSCE Secretariat in Vienna and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in November 2017. In addition, committee members will attend a forum of the Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA) organization in Italy in late November.
The tragedies in Las Vegas and Marseilles, and other events happening across the globe are further proof of the need for joint efforts in the field of collective security, Tolstoy said. The committee will broaden exchange of anti-terrorism practices, he said.
"We are expecting the committee to focus on the elaboration and harmonization of legislative frameworks and programs in this area, as well as improve quality of the information exchange between OSCE member countries," Toltsoy said.