The Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean attended the Fifty-Second Plenary Session of the PABSEC General Assembly, which was held in Yerevan, on 27-28 November 2018, upon the invitation of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia. The Yerevan Session was attended by the parliamentary delegations of Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.
The PAM delegation was made up of Hon. Roberta Alma Anastase (Romania) and members of the Syrian parliamentary delegation, namely Hon. Dr. Ashwaq Abbas, Hon. Maher Khayata, Hon. Dr. Nora Arissian, Hon. MHD Jallal Darwish.
Addressing the Session on behalf of PAM, Hon. Anastase underscored the cooperation between PABSEC and PAM recalling that challenges are global and must be addressed in a collective and comprehensive way. “All members of ours societies must give their contribution, and that is where inter-parliamentary relations can be effective: by exchanging information, lessons learned and best practises. In particular, PAM could implement some effective measures that PABSEC has adopted and put in place, and vice versa”, Hon. Anastase added.
PAM follows the initiatives of PABSEC with great attention and contributes because the Black Sea and the Mediterranean regions have many points in common: not only do they have some countries in common, but most importantly they face the same challenges. For this reason, a fruitful cooperation based on exchange of information and constant involvement in each other’s activities becomes crucial.
“Parliamentary diplomacy has gained an increasingly important role in multilateral and international relations for a very simple reason: it has proven to be effective in several domains. PAM strongly believes in the effectiveness of joining forces, and looks forward to further progress also in its cooperation with PABSEC in the near future”, Hon. Anastase concluded.