Honourable senators, I rise today to speak about the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, OSCE, that took place in Bucharest, Romania, earlier this summer.

The OSCE, in its present incarnation, was established in 1995, 20 years after its initial grouping as the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe coming out of the Helsinki Accords when the Cold War was at its peak.

The OSCE, comprising 57 member countries from Europe, North America and Central Asia, concerns itself with early warning; conflict prevention; crisis management; supporting democracy, including election observation; and post-conflict rehabilitation.

These issue areas are also addressed by its Parliamentary Assembly, which comprises delegates from the parliaments of member countries.

Short speeches are made, resolutions are debated and, uniquely in international parliamentary bodies, voted on.

It was a great honour for me to participate in the assembly in Bucharest, along with our Senate colleagues Judy White and Percy Downe and several members of Parliament.

We were led by Dr. Hedy Fry, who has headed Canada’s delegation to this event for many years, including last year in Vancouver.

We were ably assisted and advised by Andrew Lauzon of Parliament’s International and Interparliamentary Affairs Directorate as well as Anne-Marie Therrien-Tremblay and Nicole Sweeney of the Library of Parliament.

Colleagues, as you might expect, the war in Ukraine dominated our agenda, including resolutions regarding sanctions, seizure and repurposing of Russian assets, support to organizations providing services to victims of gender-based violence, environmental impacts of the war, kidnapped Ukrainian children and food security.

Other issues included the ongoing tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan and other parts of the Caucasus, as well as concerning developments impacting the nascent democracy of Georgia. Moldova’s vulnerability was also addressed.

Neither Russia nor Belarus participated, despite being members of the Parliamentary Assembly. In fact, Russia is actively working to impede the work of the OSCE and the operations of the organization itself.

We engaged and worked with other parliamentarians, expecting that our deliberations and resolutions would come to the attention of the executive branches of our respective governments and assist in their policy deliberations. Colleagues, that is what effective parliamentary diplomacy is all about.

More personally, I took great satisfaction in witnessing the dedicated advocacy and sense of purpose of parliamentarians from those countries that are still building their democracies, having freed themselves from the iron yoke of authoritarianism, who were determined not to return to that dark, repressive place.

It was always a great honour in my previous career as a diplomat to represent Canada. It continues to be a great honour to do so as a parliamentarian.

Thank you.