Moscow is hosting the summits of leaders of the Commonwealth of the Independent States (CIS) and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) at the Kremlin.
The summit of the CSTO, consisting of Russia, Armenia, Belarus,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, will be the first
to open. The minister of foreign affairs of the countries earlier
agreed on the schedule and prepared documents for signing.
This year the CSTO summit is held for the third time, however the
previous summits were unofficial and saw no decisions made. Intensive
contacts between the heads of states and diplomats prepared over 30
issues for discussion.
The main topics are improvement of the mechanism of the CSTO crisis
reaction, improvement of measures against threats and challenges. They
will involve new talks on the charter and law bases of the
organization.
Amendments will be made to the collective security treaty, the
organization's charter, procedure rules and the structure of the CSTO.
The document on the order of reacting to crisis situations has already
been prepared for signing. It determines the algorithms of work of the
working structures, including extreme consultations and settlement of
crisis situations.
The reason for changes is the situation in Kyrgyzstan, Russian
Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov said at the CSTO meeting of
foreign ministers yesterday. The approved amendments to the CSTO
Charter include joint measures to form an efficient system of
collective security and protection from threats to security,
stability, territorial unity and sovereignty and realization of the
right for collective defense.
The summit is expected to be concluded with passing of a declaration
of the CSTO members and a declaration on the peacekeeping forces of
the CSTO. Then the chairmanship of the CSTO will be handed to Belarus.
The CIS summit will be intensive as well. The president will discuss
the project agreements on the free trade zone of the commonwealth and
search for criminals on the international wanted list. They will hold
talks on the concept of cooperation until 2015. The presidents need to
determine the next chair of the CIS in 2011.
The agreement on the free trade zone of the CIS will liberalize the
trade space of the CIS and remove trade barriers.
The Kremlin's press-service says that the summit will conclude the
Russian chairmanship in the CIS in 2010. Improvement of food security
is expected to be the next year's priority topic.
The summit will hold talks on the strategy of international youth
cooperation within the CIS until 2020. The document will determine the
main goals and objectives, forms and mechanisms of developing youth
links. It is the first document being developed by the CIS of this
kind. The Youth Innovative Session of the CIS is also concluding its
work, held for the first time.
The presidents will discuss cooperation of the CIS states within the
framework of the OSCE, taking into account the Kazakh chairmanship in
the organization in 2010.
The leaders of states will view the joint note due to the 25th
anniversary (April 26, 2011) of the Chernobyl disaster on the nuclear
power plant.
