Kiev Risks Giving Impression of Not Being Committed to Peace – OSCE PA Head

ULAN BATOR (Sputnik), Svetlana Alexandrova – Ukrainian politicians must consider parliamentary diplomacy in seeking a resolution for the crisis in east Ukraine to avoid giving the impression of not being committed to peace, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA) president told Sputnik on Wednesday.

"I suppose they are also looking forward to constructive ways to solve this problem because if not, they will be the only ones who refused the talks and discussions," Ilkka Kanerva said.

Kanerva said Ukrainian policymakers were aware of an initiative to find other possible formats for talks outside the Normandy quartet of Russian, German, French and Ukrainian leaders, which he named as "a concrete base to go forward."

"We have to knock on the door over and over again and of course, it is important for Ukrainian politicians and parliamentarians to show that they are also ready to find ways to promote parliamentary diplomacy," he stressed.

Sergei Naryshkin, Russian parliamentary speaker and head of Russia’s OSCE PA delegation, lamented the Ukrainian side’s "nonconstructive position" in not allowing an inter-parliamentary group on relations with Ukraine to go forward.

In opening remarks to OSCE PA lawmakers, Kanerva said the OSCE PA facilitated "some of the only direct contact" between Russian and Ukrainian parliamentarians and stressed adherence to the Minsk ceasefire agreement.

The three-day OSCE PA session opened in the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator on Wednesday, bringing together lawmakers from OSCE participating states. Nearly 200 parliamentarians from 57 countries spanning North America, Europe and central Asia gathered in the central Asian city for the assembly’s 2015 Autumn Meeting.