The two-day forum, which kicked off on Monday, was themed as «Greater Eurasia: Dialogue. Trust. Partnership». First President of Kazakhstan-Elbasy Nursultan Nazarbayev was one of the distinguished guests of the forum.
Iran’s parliamentary delegation despite early reports was not led by Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani and First Vice Speaker Masoud Pezeshkian led the Iranian delegation to the forum.
Addressing the forum, Mr. Pezeshkian supported the idea for an expanded and great Eurasia, adding that to this end, an all-out cooperation is needed by all members. He went on to say that in order to materialize shaping the Great Eurasia, it needs first a great understanding from the idea and all should work for confidence building and taking advantage of capacities. Pezeshkian noted that using new methods of trade is a good starting point because trade can create good understanding for other issues.
He also criticized big countries’ unilateralism which affects all agreements and trade activities. He then blasted the U.S. for its unilateral sanctions against Iran, adding that because of the failure of sanctions, the U.S. and its allies have now resorted to false accusations against Iran. He emphasized Iran has never been after tension and war, and it just wants its oil and goods to be exported from the Persian Gulf without any restriction.
He also criticized one of the participants in the forum for his anti-Iran remarks. He once again voiced Iran’s readiness for cooperation for securing peace in the Persian Gulf.
The forum brought together parliamentary delegations from around 65 countries of Europe and Asia, representatives of 14 international parliamentary organizations, including OSCE and CSTO parliamentary assemblies, the Inter-Parliamentary Union and Asian Parliamentary Assembly, the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD), European Parliament, CICA, OIC Parliamentary Union, CIS IPA and the SCO.
Kazakhstan hosts such a high-level parliamentary event for the first time. It is symbolic that the 4th meeting of the Speakers of the Eurasian Countries’ Parliaments is being held on the year of the 25th anniversary of Nursultan Nazarbayev’s initiative on Eurasian integration. The message of Kazakhstan is to position Eurasia as a platform for testing a brand new model of partnership based on a joint, collective settlement of arising contradictions among the countries as well as countering common challenges.
Kazakhstan’s Mazhilis Speaker Nurlan Nigmatulinwas the moderator of the closing day session.
Majilis of the Kazakh Parliament, State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation and the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea were the co-organizers of the forum.
The 1st MSEAP on «Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation for Joint Prosperity of Eurasian Countries in the 21st Century» was held in Moscow in 2016.
By: F. Taherpour Asl
