MINSK, 14 October (BelTA) - For the CIS countries, it is important to support support each other internationally, Chairman of the CIS Executive Committee – CIS Executive Secretary Sergei Lebedev told the media following the meeting of the CIS Ministerial Council in Minsk on 14 October, BelTA has learned.
Sergei Lebedev stressed that the CIS Executive Committee, headquartered in Minsk, receives comprehensive and constant support from Belarus. "The successful conduct of the current meeting is the result of well-coordinated joint productive work, mutual understanding and a constructive approach to all issues," he said.
Sergei Lebedev noted that during the meeting the chairmanship was transferred to Kazakhstan and that the next meeting of the CIS Ministerial Council in Dushanbe in April 2022 will already be held under Kazakhstan's chairmanship. "However, Belarus will retain the chairmanship until the end of the year, and therefore will preside over the CIS Council of Heads of Government meeting in Bishkek on 12 November which is now being prepared, presumably, in an offline format. We are communicating with our Kyrgyz colleagues, and they are determined to hold the meeting in person," Sergey Lebedev said.
Sergei Lebedev thanked the foreign ministers for attending the meeting in Minsk in person. "This is very important for us, because the foreign ministries coordinate cooperation in the international arena, including within the framework of international organizations, which is the CIS. The outcome of a wide range of issues related to the preservation and strengthening of the integration cooperation depend on the way the foreign ministries work, their ability to negotiate and agree on many positions,” said Sergei Lebedev.
The in-person ministerial meeting in Minsk made it possible to discuss many important issues, including the ones on the relations both within the CIS and between the CIS countries and representatives of the non-CIS countries, the chairman of the CIS Executive Committee said.
Sergei Lebedev added that the participants of the meeting approved the regulation on the CIS International Association (Commission) of Historians and Archivists. “We are all witnessing a distortion of history, especially concerning the role and significance of the Soviet Union and the peoples of the CIS countries in the victory in World War II. It is very important to develop common approaches, especially in the protection of historical truth, in the objective coverage of historical events, the history of both the Soviet Union and the CIS,” he said.
The participants of the CIS Ministerial Council approved the plan of multilevel inter-ministerial consultations within the CIS. The plan provides for the coordination of activities at international venues. “It is very important to defend the interests of friends, CIS partners at international forums within the UN and other international organizations,” the chairman of the CIS Executive Committee said.
Sergei Lebedev thanked Belarus for organizing a face-to-face ministerial meeting, which he described as successful and constructive.
The foreign ministers discussed 14 issues and decided that the next meeting of the CIS Ministerial Council will be held in Dushanbe on 8 April 2022.
