There is still place left in the achievements’ pool

Yes, only two months remain before Belarus completes its responsible mission. Summing up the results of Minsk chairmanship in the CIS, Alexander Lukashenko, in particular, drew attention to the key aspects of interaction in the Commonwealth. Such as the development of a common economic space, the expansion and enhancement of the efficiency of mutual trade. The President of Belarus also stressed that significant efforts were directed at further development of cooperation in youth policy, culture, science, education, health care, sports, tourism, social protection.

In general, the agenda of the summit included such important topics as the development of interaction in the field of biological security, in the spheres of migration, protection of the electoral rights of citizens and guarantees of the electoral sovereignty of the CIS countries. Alexander Lukashenko noted that the updated Treaty on Combating Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction fully meets the requirements of today.

By the way, the draft Agreement on formation of the Council of Presidents of the Supreme (Higher) Courts of the Commonwealth countries is also aimed at expansion of functions and capabilities of the judicial system, taking into account modern realities.

The President of Belarus assured his counterparts: – Belarus has been and remains an active participant in regional integration associations. And today we confirm this once again.

Alexander Lukashenko also noted that this meeting is significant, as it is held on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the CIS. – There are different points of view about the termination of the existence of the Soviet Union, or more precisely, its forced collapse. Everyone is well aware of my negative attitude towards these events. But in that critical situation, the creation of such integration, one might say, "dome" that sheltered the former Soviet republics from the inevitable chaos and economic collapse, was most likely the right decision.

Of course, over three decades, the Commonwealth has gone through a difficult path of formation and has become a regional organization recognized by the international community. The President of Belarus pointed out obvious advantages of the CIS: – Universality, voluntariness, equality are fundamental principles that helped to contain many destructive processes and stabilize economies, to maintain trade ties between our countries.

The topic, which was one of the priorities in the framework of the chairmanship of Belarus in the CIS, is the cooperation of economies. It is to this aspect that the states of the Commonwealth intend to continue to pay the most serious attention. However, Alexander Lukashenko highlighted such an equally important point: – One of the key achievements of the CIS is the preservation of close human contacts, trust-based political relations, multifaceted economic ties with a focus on further integration. In conditions of instability in the world, the cooperation of mutually complementary economies of the CIS states is of decisive importance.

The subject of discussion at the summit was the topic of sanctions pressure, which is applied by the West contrary to the norms of international law. In this regard, Alexander Lukashenko proposed to take further real steps to unite efforts on joint protection of interests in the world market for strengthening the role and weight of the Commonwealth. The President of Belarus believes that in modern conditions it is advisable to take specific steps to combine regional integration processes:

BELTA

– I believe that topical issues on the agenda in the CIS format should, first of all, take into account what is going on in Greater Eurasia. And on certain topics, they could be synchronized with the problems discussed within the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

According to Alexander Lukashenko, under the current conditions, the Union State of Belarus and Russia can act as a driver for integration processes, offering the best practices for the EAEU and the CIS. The President of Belarus expressed confidence that this would be a real contribution to harmonization of such processes with neighboring regional associations in order to consolidate Eurasia economically and form a large Eurasian partnership.

The document, in particular, says – We consider it our common task to further realize the potential of the Commonwealth, strengthen its position in the international arena and ensure its further dynamic development. Considering trade and economic interaction as a key factor in further deepening of economic integration and sustainable development of the CIS member states, we declare our desire to create favorable conditions for effective economic cooperation, full-fledged functioning of the free trade zone, and transition of interested states to deeper economic integration.

In their speeches the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan spoke about the way they see the consequences of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. They also expressed their point of view about the events in the region as a whole. They dwelt not only on the problems, but also on peace initiatives. – War and the conflict have remained in history. We are ready to start negotiations with Armenia on border delimitation, under condition of mutual recognition of territorial integrity. We are also ready to start a peace agreement negotiations with Armenia, – noted Ilham Aliyev.

On the whole, Armenia is also inclined towards dialogue. – We are ready to start this process. And in this matter we also hope for the support of Russia and our other international partners. An appropriate atmosphere is very important to overcome existing obstacles, – Nikol Pashinyan said.

And one more proposal from Armenia. – We consider it important to restore the negotiation process within the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship, – said the Prime Minister of this country.

– The key role of the CIS is to provide conditions for peaceful cooperation and joint work for the prosperity and development of our countries, improvement of the well-being of our citizens. I am pleased to note that the indicators of trade and investment cooperation within the Commonwealth are beginning to improve. The volume of trade within the CIS increased by 27 percent. Prospects are opening up for the implementation of large joint investment and infrastructure projects that increase interconnection in the Commonwealth space, the involvement of economies and

companies in Eurasian production and transport chains.

For all of us, the priority task is to preserve the memory of the common Victory in the Great Patriotic War. We are grateful to the Commonwealth partners for support of the initiatives put forward by Russia on international platforms to preserve the historical truth and oppose the justification of Nazism in any of its manifestations.

– The CIS has become an authoritative international organization. Intraregional trade in the CIS is more than $91 billion (or only 0.5 percent of the level of world trade). At the same time, the share of mutual trade of the Commonwealth countries occupies about 20 percent of the total trade turnover of our states with the outside world. These indicators testify to the presence of a huge potential for a significant increase in our trade and economic ties. Therefore, a lot of joint work is to be done on rethinking and improving the current approaches to economic interaction. The main attention should be paid to the expansion of industrial cooperation of the CIS countries, including the creation of joint ventures, ensuring production connectivity and effective cooperation of economic entities. To do this, we propose to set up a new program for the development of industrial complexes until at least 2025.

– Kyrgyzstan attaches great importance to expansion of relations with the CIS countries. The situation in the world is rapidly changing, and this dictates the need to consolidate efforts for a timely response to external challenges and threats. The presence of such destabilizing factors as international terrorism, extremism, illegal migration and cross-border crime, further exacerbation of the socio-economic and food crisis, can lead to a real humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan. This, in turn, can ignite a civil war in this country, which will cause tension and destabilize the situation in the regions of Central Asia and the Middle East. In this regard, I would like to appeal to the entire world community and call for the adoption of joint effective measures on neutralization of these challenges and threats, and provision of all-round support to the Afghan people. The Kyrgyz side proposes to consider the possibility of delivering humanitarian aid to the people of Afghanistan under the auspices of the CIS.

– The last 30 years have become the years of transition for the states represented here, and this time was not easy for all of us. Many countries have had to go

through hardships, losses and conflicts. And Moldova is no exception. Despite the difficulties, the CIS platform provides an opportunity to continue the dialogue between our countries and find solutions to existing problems.

I especially want to emphasize that the approach of the new leadership of the Republic of Moldova is a pragmatic, balanced, consistent foreign policy that takes into account the interests of our partners and promotes its own priorities. The CIS is an important forum for us, since it opens up opportunities for the Moldovan side, first of all, for mutually beneficial and effective trade and economic cooperation. We are interested in strengthening and further development of trade ties within the CIS on an equal and mutually beneficial basis.

– Our Belarusian friends during the chairmanship did a great job on maintaining a stable functioning pace of the CIS, which made it possible to jointly achieve a number of significant practical results. The focus should remain on issues of strengthening the coordination of joint activities to overcome the crisis and reduce its negative consequences. We are concerned about the activities of a number of organizations banned in our countries, which use the platforms of international and regional structures to justify their illegal actions. In this regard, we hope that the idea proposed by Tajikistan to create a single list of terrorist and extremist organizations banned on the territory of the member states, will be jointly implemented.

– One of the tasks of the Commonwealth in the coming years is to build up economic cooperation. Adopted Strategy for the Economic Development of the CIS until 2030 clearly defines the directions of our cooperation. The priorities of the strategy include transport, fuel and energy complex, communications, industrial cooperation, innovations and technologies.

Turkmenistan pays special attention to joint protection of the existing architecture of global security, upholding the norms of international law and the UN Charter. This task is more urgent than ever. The CIS countries, using their political and diplomatic capabilities, are meant to act from a consolidated and principled position in the UN and other international and regional structures. In other words, it is necessary to return to world politics based on respect for law, culture of dialogue, trust and predictability in relations between the states.

– One of the key areas of multilateral cooperation is mutual assistance in ensuring sustainable economic growth of the Commonwealth countries. The global crisis caused by the consequences of the pandemic has become a big test for all countries. In these conditions, we manage to maintain the positive dynamics of trade and economic cooperation. Nevertheless, today the time necessitates a full-fledged functioning of the free trade zone in the Commonwealth space without restrictions and barriers.

We propose to jointly conduct a comprehensive analysis of the real state of our trade relations in the new conditions and, on this basis, prepare specific recommendations, taking into account the factor of complementarity of our economies. They could form the basis of a multilateral action plan for the further liberalization of trade policy within the CIS.

Vladimir Velikhov