Sochi hosts meeting of CIS Council of Foreign Ministers

SOCHI. KAZINFORM The foreign ministers of the CIS member states have discussed a number of draft documents for a wider and deeper cooperation in various areas during the Meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CFM) held in Sochi.

"In a narrow circle, the foreign ministers approved the agenda of the meeting and addressed a series of issues.

In particular, the attendees adopted the decision on the draft statement of the heads of the Commonwealth member states to support the institution of the family and traditional family values. The statement was unanimously supported. Also, a decision was made to assign the quota posts in the CIS Executive Committee for the next three-year period from 2018 to 2020. They made a decision to hold the next meeting of the CIS Council of Foreign Ministers on April 6, 2018, in Minsk, the Republic of Belarus.

In addition, it was decided to declare the Year of the Book in the Commonwealth of Independent States (2019), and the Year of the 75th Anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War (2020). The foreign ministers agreed to sign other documents without discussion in view of their high readiness," Sergey Lebedev, the Executive Secretary of the Commonwealth of Independent States, summarized the results of the meeting.

The foreign ministers also approved the draft decisions of the CIS Council of Heads of State on the delineation of powers between the CIS Council of Heads of State and Council of Heads of Government, the Provision on the Council of Foreign Ministers, and the Provision on the Economic Council.

Moreover, they approved the following draft documents: the Concept of Anti-Corruption Cooperation between the CIS States, the Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Commonwealth of Independent States on the conditions for the presence of the Coordination Bureau on Struggle Against Organized Crime and Other Dangerous Types of Crime in the CIS States on the territory of Russia, the Agreement on the Information Exchange within the CIS with regard to the fight against terrorism and other violent manifestations of extremism and financing.

The foreign ministers also approved the draft guidelines for adapting the Joint CIS Air Defense System to the aerospace defense missions.

The 2018-2020 Action Plans for the implementation of the 2020 Program of Support and Development of National Sports in the Commonwealth, as well as the 2020 Strategy for International Youth Cooperation of the CIS States and the 2020 Strategy for the Development of Tourism Cooperation of the CIS States, have been approved.

The draft documents discussed by the ministers of foreign affairs will be submitted to the CIS Council of Heads of State as the meeting is scheduled to be held on October 11, 2017, in Sochi.