DUSHANBE, April 9, 2011, Asia-Plus — A meeting of the CIS Council of Foreign Ministers took place in Kiev, Ukraine on April 8. It was a jubilee meeting as the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) will turn 20 in December.
Foreign Ministers of Tajikistan Hamrokhon Zarifi, of Ukraine Konstantin Grishchenko, of Armenia Eduard Naldandian, of Belarus Sergei Martynov, of Russia Sergei Lavrov, and of Kyrgyzstan Ruslan Kazakbayev took part in the meeting. Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Uzbekistan were represented at the meeting at the level of deputy foreign affairs ministers.
According to the Tajik MFA information department, the meeting, chaired by Tajik FM Zarifi, discussed draft statements of CIS heads of state on occasion of the 20th anniversary of the CIS and draft letter of CIS heads of state to CIS’s peoples and the world on occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Great Patriotic War.
The meeting participants also exchanged views on various aspects of cooperation within the CIS area and considered a number of documents to be submitted to the CIS heads of state and government within the next several months. These included draft agreements on the coordination of activities of law enforcement agencies upon receipt of information on the seizure or hijacking of planes and in countering offences related to intellectual property.
The heads of the delegations also discussed a draft agreement on a common system of registration of third-party citizens and stateless persons to enter the CIS.
The ministers paid close attention to cooperation in the fields of science and culture and considered draft agreements on the creation of a council on cooperation in the field of fundamental science, and a concept for the development of education in the field of culture and art in the CIS countries.
The next meeting of the CIS Council of Foreign Ministers will take place in Dushanbe in September this year.
