The 20th Winter Meeting of the Organization for Security andCo-operation in Europe (OSCE) Parliamentary Assembly is taking place on 24-26February 2021 in a virtual format attended by over 270 parliamentarians frommember states.

On February 25, 2021, within the framework of the Winter Meeting,the State Great Hural of Mongolia was represented by D.Tsogtbaatar, Member ofParliament and Chair of the OSCE-Mongolia Parliamentary Assembly LiaisonGroup, at the joint session of the three General Committees correspond to thethree main sections of the Helsinki Final Act: the Committee on PoliticalAffairs and Security; the Committee on Economic Affairs, Science, Technologyand Environment; and the Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and HumanitarianQuestions. 

The 20th Winter Meeting – the first-ever virtual statutory meetingof the Assembly – discussed subject matters such as the building ofenvironmental security, as well as the impact of COVID-19 on security anddemocracy. Opening the joint session, Wolfgang Sobotka, President of theAustrian National Council, stressed the importance of parliamentary work inthese difficult times, emphasizing the importance of multilateralism,inter-parliamentary diplomacy and cooperation to ensure greater progress. 

The general debate, moderated by the Secretary-General of the OSCEParliamentary Assembly, Roberto Montella, focused on press freedom, migrationand the deterioration of human rights standards. 

At the time that Mongolia became a member state of the OSCE in2012, the State Great Hural of Mongolia became a member of the OSCEParliamentary Assembly. Subsequently, the State Great Hural successfully hostedthe 2015 Autumn Meeting of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in Ulaanbaatar,Mongolia. The theme for the Meeting was “Addressing security challenges in theOSCE region and beyond: the role of parliamentarians in fostering regionalco-operation.” 

The Assembly is the main mechanism for inter-parliamentarydialogue between its 57 member states, with headquarter in Copenhagen, Denmark.