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OSCE parliamentary assembly adopts Helsinki document

Xinhua, July 10, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCEPA) wound up its annual meeting here Thursday.

The Assembly accepted a final document titled "Recalling the Spirit of Helsinki," which refers to the Helsinki Summit in 1975.

The parliamentarians demanded that Minsk ceasefire agreements be applied in Ukraine. The Assembly also underlined that its observers should be allowed to move about freely in conflict areas.

Russia did not send a delegation to Helsinki as Finland did not authorize entry to several Russian parliamentarians listed in the EU travel ban.

Assembly president Finnish MP Ilkka Kanerva noted he would demand clearer guidelines from the EU concerning the application of the travel bans.

Talking to press, Kanerva was positive about the future of the OSCEPA and said there was no specific problem between the Assembly and Russia. He said he was planning to travel to Moscow in the near future.

Kanerva was re-elected to the position of assembly president for another year.

The meeting of parliamentarians will be followed by an informal gathering of high level government representatives of the OSCE area on Friday. The gathering will also commemorate the signing of the Helsinki Act in 1975.

The next meeting of the OSCEPA will be held in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, which joined the organization as a partner country. Endit