CIS Council of foreign ministers to discuss in Minsk further steps on topical areas of cooperation
CIS nations intend to expand cooperation in the humanitarian sector, as well as in security sphere in line with the present realities and challenges. These tasks are reflected in the draft of 13 documents, which will be considered during the regular meeting of the Council of foreign ministers of the Commonwealth (CFM), to be hosted by Minsk on 6 April. In particular, it is planned to discuss and approve the project proposed by the Turkmen side on the declaring 2021 as the year of architecture and urban planning in the CIS. This document was developed by the Ministry of foreign affairs of Turkmenistan on the initiative of President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov. Turkmen leader voiced this idea at last year's summit of the CIS heads of state in Sochi and was supported by all its participants. Another noteworthy item on the agenda of the Minsk meeting is the international Youth project “100 ideas for the CIS”, aimed at attracting young people to the integration processes, as well as at identifying and facilitating the implementation of innovative ideas generated by the creative youth and having practical value for the socio-economic development of the CIS countries. In addition, the implementation of the plan of multi-level inter-Ministerial consultations (MMMC) for 2017 will be considered in a broad format and a similar document for 2018 will be agreed. MMMC has proved itself as an effective instrument of foreign policy coordination and this year will touch upon issues of cooperation at the UN, OSCE, interaction with the EU and other major international organizations. One of the documents concerns the granting the status of the basic organization of CIS for training and retraining of staff for tax (financial) investigation bodies to the Academy of law enforcement agencies under the Prosecutor General's office of Kazakhstan. In addition, within the framework of its status, the Academy will ensure the exchange of experience, coordination of the development and implementation of joint educational and research programs. In order to improve methods of countering modern threats to stability and security, the foreign ministers will discuss draft multilateral documents providing for joint efforts in combating cyber crimes, laundering of criminally derived income, financing of terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The same package also includes the Interstate Program of joint anti-crime measures for 2019-2023, which stipulated a set of measures to prevent drug trafficking, human trafficking and illegal migration. CFM was established in 1993 as a body regulating foreign policy activity. In October last year, the Council of heads of state approved a new regulations on CFM, according to which it is considered as the main executive body, responsible for cooperation in the humanitarian sector and other matters of mutual interest as well. CFM considers draft documents within its competence and decides on their submission to the Council of heads of state and the Council of heads of government of the CIS. Until now, the Council of foreign ministers held 63 meetings and adopted 1018 documents.
