Belarusian FM urges to promote solidarity, mutual support in CIS
MINSK, 14 April (BelTA) – Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Aleinik took part in a meeting of the CIS Ministerial Council in Samarkand, BelTA learned from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The foreign ministers exchanged views on issues on the global and regional agenda and coordinated the approaches to deepening multifaceted cooperation within the CIS.
Sergei Aleinik paid special attention to the importance of strengthening and promoting solidarity and mutual support within the CIS. He urged the need to develop coordinated and verified approaches of the CIS countries to key issues of international politics and security. «The CIS countries should not be onlookers in the current geopolitical realities. They should participate in the changes that are happening, promoting and defending both their national interests and the interests of the CIS,» the minister said.
In this context, it is important to continue work to implement the program of action to intensify the partnership between the foreign ministries of the CIS member states. Belarus suggested adapting the program to modern conditions.
The minister spoke about the need to further strengthen the trade and economic potential of the CIS, to make a more intensive use of industrial cooperation tools, to promote import substitution. «We must continue to work on removing barriers to trade, building new transport and logistics routes and chains,» the Belarusian minister of foreign affairs said.
The work on the draft Agreement on Free Trade in Services has been completed, Sergei Aleinik noted. Its signing is expected at the next meeting of the CIS Heads of Government Council.
In his speech, Sergei Aleinik also touched on sport cooperation in the CIS. In this context, the minister informed his colleagues about the preparations for the II CIS Games and called on all CIS states to take an active part in the upcoming sports festival, assuring that Belarus will take all necessary measures to make the tournament a golden standard for de-politicization of sport.
As a result of the meeting, a package of documents on cooperation in a number of areas in the CIS was signed. In particular, it was decided to establish the CIS spartakiad for children with disabilities, to set up the CIS base organization for the training and retraining of journalists. A landmark decision for Belarus was a decision to declare Minsk the CIS Capital of Sports 2023.
The ministers approved the draft decisions of the CIS Heads of State Council on the draft agreement on the interaction of the CIS countries on the documentation of persons subject to forced deportation, certificates of return, on declaring Uzbekistan’s Samarkand the CIS Capital of Culture 2024.
It was decided to hold the next meeting of the CIS Ministerial Council in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on 12 October 2023.
