Council of CIS prime ministers begins work in Burabay

The prime ministers of CIS member-countries have begun a meeting of the Council of CIS heads of state. The event is being held in the resort village of Burabay in Kazakhstan.

The parties signed documents regulating cooperation in various fields. The meeting‘s agenda includes more than 20 issues.In particular, the Prime Ministers of the CIS countries signed a joint action plan to address pressing issues in the financial and economic sphere, as well as strategies to ensure international traffic safety.In addition, the parties endorsed a number of documents, including the results of the implementation of the program of innovative cooperation in 2014, the package of measures to implement this program until 2020, cooperation in the cultural sphere in 2016-2020 and guidelines for cooperation in forestry and the forest industry until 2025.The documents cover the main directions of development of joint monitoring and evaluation of radiation, chemical and biological conditions of the defense ministries of the CIS countries up to 2020; a concept of development of military-applied sports in the armed forces of the CIS nations during the period until 2020; regulation of information interaction of the countries participating in the agreement on a unified system of registration of citizens of third countries and stateless persons arriving in the CIS.

 

The parties signed documents regulating cooperation in various fields. The meeting‘s agenda includes more than 20 issues.

In particular, the Prime Ministers of the CIS countries signed a joint action plan to address pressing issues in the financial and economic sphere, as well as strategies to ensure international traffic safety.

In addition, the parties endorsed a number of documents, including the results of the implementation of the program of innovative cooperation in 2014, the package of measures to implement this program until 2020, cooperation in the cultural sphere in 2016-2020 and guidelines for cooperation in forestry and the forest industry until 2025.

The documents cover the main directions of development of joint monitoring and evaluation of radiation, chemical and biological conditions of the defense ministries of the CIS countries up to 2020; a concept of development of military-applied sports in the armed forces of the CIS nations during the period until 2020; regulation of information interaction of the countries participating in the agreement on a unified system of registration of citizens of third countries and stateless persons arriving in the CIS.

The Prime Ministers also approved the amendments to the interstate target program for the remediation of the territories affected by uranium mining industries, and a document on the state of archives in the countries of the Commonwealth, TASS reports.

 

The deputy dean of the Faculty of Global Economics and International Affairs of the Higher School of Economics National Research University, Andrei Suzdaltsev, told Vestnik Kavkaza that the assessment of the importance and results of such meetings should be balanced. "Do not underestimate the importance of these meetings, but also do not exaggerate. I remind you that the CIS is a universal organization, which regulates all processes occurring in the region. In this case, it would be too much to claim that it is a strong economic structure which can really withstand the current challenges of the global economy," Suzdaltsev said.

 

A Professor of the Department of Russian Foreign Policy in the National Security Faculty at RANEPA, Alexander Mikhailenko, said that, "on the other hand, the CIS has an agreement on a free trade zone which covers more countries than the EEU. I think because the contradictions between the countries participating in the CIS are significant, for example, Moldova and Ukraine signed an association agreement with the the EU, the Commonwealth is existing today to coordinate their plans, but it does not work as an integration structure," Mikhailenko said.