In the introductory part, the participants were welcomed by the Chair of the Security and Defense Committee of the Parliament of Montenegro Mr. Mevludin Nuhodžić, Head of the OSCE Mission to Montenegro Ambassador Ms. Janina Hrebičkova and Chair of the Committee on Defense, National Security and Internal Affairs of the Parliament of the Republic of Armenia Mr. Koryun Nahapetyan.

Chair of the Security and Defense Committee Mevludin Nuhodžić informed the guests about the competence and experience in the work of the Security and Defense Committee in the past period, with special emphasis on the implementation of the Law on Parliamentary Oversight of Security and Defense Sector and practices, emphasizing the importance of adopting this act and stating that this act is a product of the need, desire and political to put the mentioned sector under parliamentary oversight in a way that will guarantee a maximum of legality in the work and respect and protection of human rights and freedoms. In this regard, he noted that a broad platform and scope of competency of the Committee have been established with this Law, sufficient for its quality and continuous work, reminding that tasks of this working body are precisely and clearly defined and significantly expanded.     

Head of the OSCE Mission to Montenegro Ambassador Janina Hrebičkova pointed out, in her address, that after the renewal of independence and admission to the OSCE in June 2006, Montenegro made significant progress in reforms of the defense and security sector, and successfully fulfilled the entire range of obligations deriving from the major documents of the organization. In accordance with the above, she emphasized the quality of cooperation of the OSCE Mission to Montenegro with the Security and DefenseCommittee, stating that this working body continuously operates towards strengthening the knowledge of the various issues related to effective democratic oversight of the security and defense sector. 

Chair of the Committee on Defense, National Security and Internal Affairs of the Parliament of the Republic of Armenia Mr. Koryun Nahapetyan presented experiences in the work of this body and expressed gratitude to the possibility to exchange experiences with Montenegrin counterparts in the field of implementation of parliamentary oversight in this sector, with a view to building a legislative framework and the implementation of reform processes, pointing out that our country is an example of good practice in this field. 

During the meeting, special attention was paid to drafting and effects of implementation of the Law on Parliamentary Oversight of Security and Defense Sector, cooperation with bodies and institutions in this sector, as well as cooperation with civil society organizations and the experiences of the committee in this field.  

Delegation of the Parliament of the Republic of Armenia is paying visit to Montenegro from 28 to 30 July 2014, at their initiative and with the support of the OSCE Office in Yerevan and in cooperation with the OSCE Mission to Podgorica. 

In addition to the meeting with members of the Security and Defense Committee, during the first day of their visit, the visiting delegation held meetings with representatives of the Institute "Alternative" and the Center for Democracy and Human Rights (CEDEM), and they also visited OSCE Mission to Montenegro. Furthermore, the delegation will have meetings with representatives of the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Defense aimed at exchange of experiences about achieved results in the field of reform of security and defense sector.