Tajik Prime Minister Qohir Rasoulzoda is currently in Minsk to attend a session of the Council of Heads of Government of the CIS member nations that is being held in the Belarusian capital today.
As source within the Tajik government says the heads of delegation will meet in a narrow format to discuss issues related to economic cooperation within the CIS area and determine date and venue of the next meeting.
A wide format meeting will focus on measures to prevent the spread of infectious disease and cooperation in the fields of sanitary protection of territories of the CIS member nations and promoting employment of the population of the CIS member nations.
A number of documents are expected to be singed during the CIS prime ministers’ session.
Meanwhile, Belarusian news agency BelTA says Prime Minister of Belarus Roman Golovchenko met yesterday with Chairman of the CIS Executive Committee, CIS Executive Secretary Sergei Lebedev to discuss the forthcoming session of the CIS Heads of Government Council.
Roman Golovchenko reportedly said that the CIS prime ministers are intent on discussing all the priorities of Belarus' presidency over the CIS and the critical tasks that all the CIS states face.
“There are various integration formats – the Union State of Belarus and Russia, the Eurasian Economic Union, the Commonwealth of Independent States, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The countries that participate in various integration associations face the same challenges and problems: the minimization of restrictions and exemptions in mutual trade, the enhancement of stability of the economies to external shocks, the ensuring of economic security, and the harmonization of government procurement procedures. We intend to discuss all these matters in detail and thoroughly,” Belarusian prime minister said
Sergei Lebedev, for his part, noted that it will be the first time in the last 12 months that an offline session of the CIS Heads of Government Council takes place.
Sergei Lebedev stressed that all the matters the CIS heads of government will have to look into had been prepared well. Considerable preparations have been done in anticipation of the session. “I hope it will be a constructive session and all the documents on the agenda will be signed,” he concluded.
The CIS Council of Heads of Government was established on December 21, 1991. The council is the second major body in the CIS after the CIS Council of Heads of State, and consists of the prime ministers of all member states. The council coordinates the CIS member states'' cooperation in economic, social and other areas of their common interests, and adopts corresponding decisions through consensus. The session of the CIS Council of Heads of Government is convened twice a year, normally in winter and autumn. Extraordinary meetings are summoned on the initiative of the government of a member state.
Founded in 1991 as a regional association of former Soviet republics, the CIS now consists of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Ukraine and Turkmenistan are associate members of the organization. Georgia pulled out quitted of the organization in 2009.
