G8 heads of parliament to discuss anti-terrorist efforts and energy security – Gryzlov

September 13

Anti-terrorist efforts at the legislative level and energy security should be the key topics at the meeting of the G8 heads of parliament scheduled for September 15-17 in St. Petersburg, wrote Boris Gryzlov, chairman of the lower house of the Russian parliament, in an article published today by the Izvestia daily.

"Improving the international legal framework and appropriate changes to national legislation are priority areas" for anti-terrorist cooperation, he said.

Different approaches to determining who is considered a terrorist by the G8 countries should be guided by legal standards and not by political expediency, he argued. "A person who kills civilians in one country cannot be ‘of use' to any other country that may think it appropriate to grant asylum to people who do not even conceal their involvement in terrorist activities," he wrote.

As this year's G8 president, Russia is actively urging other countries to sign international anti-terrorist agreements, the latest of which is the UN General Assembly's International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism.

Among the principles of global energy security, Gryzlov names the creation of fair, stable and efficient regulatory systems in order to attract reliable international investment in energy production, processing and sales. The G8 parliamentarians can contribute to the energy efficiency of their respective national manufacturers by drafting roadmaps on implementing initiatives resulting from the St. Petersburg summit, he pointed out.

"The steps taken by the lawmakers of the world's leading countries should be coordinated and complementary" to achieve the desired goal, he argued. "Otherwise some will play at the expense of the others."