European Forum

Meeting of the Socialist International Committee for the CIS, the Caucasus and the Black Sea

On 16-17 April the Socialist International Committee for the CIS, the Caucasus and the Black Sea held a meeting at the United Nations in Geneva. The meeting was co-chaired by Alexandra Dobolyi (Hungarian Socialist Party) and Mario Nalpantian (ARF Dashnaktutiun). The meeting was opened by a welcoming speech by Secretary General of the Socialist Internationa, Luis Ayala.

The meeting started with the present representatives of the countries in the region discussing the situation in their respective countries. In this manner, the state of politics in Armenia, Belarus, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine were discussed. Especially with the situation in some of the countries being fairly critical (e.g. Moldova, Ukraine) the presentations were listened to attentively by those present.

After being brought up to date on regional politics, the discussion continued on the subjects of energy, democratisation in the region and the frozen conflicts that are still present around Transdnistria and Nagorno-Karabakh and the recent war over South-Ossetia. Concerning the latter a discussion took place of the merits of the principle of state sovereignty vs. protection of human rights.