MINSK, 23 March (BelTA) – The interagency working group on the presidency of the Republic of Belarus of the Central European Initiative (CEI) held a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Andrei Kobyakov on 23 March, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian government.
The group reviewed the status of implementation of the program of Belarus' presidency of the CEI in the first half of 2017 and the preparations for the CEI Foreign Ministers meeting to be held in Minsk.
The participants of the meeting also discussed the preparations for the meeting of the CEI Parliamentary Cooperation Committee and for the ministerial conference on connectivity and compatibility in the region of the Central European Initiative in the context of the new Silk Road.
The Central European Initiative (CEI) is a regional association created by Italy, Austria, Hungary and Yugoslavia in 1989. Today the organization consists of 18 states (Albania, Austria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Montenegro and Ukraine). Belarus joined the CEI in 1996.