MINSK, 28 October (BelTA) – A package of cooperation documents was signed following the regular meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of Government in Astana on 28 October, BelTA has learned.
The participants of the meeting discussed all the issues included in the agenda and adopted more than 20 documents.
In particular, the heads of government signed a cooperation agreement on prevention and management of pandemics and other public-health emergencies. “This document will help create a CIS system of monitoring and preventing pandemics and other public-health emergencies. The document spells out the procedure for helping CIS countries deal with such emergencies, including through the involvement of mobile anti-epidemic units of the Commonwealth countries,” the press service of the CIS Executive Committee said.
A joint action plan to counter antimicrobial resistance was also approved. The press service explained that the plan is based on the analysis of the situation in the CIS states; it provides for a comprehensive approach to this matter involving all industries and sectors where antimicrobials are used (public health, agriculture, including livestock farming, crop production, aquaculture, production and sale of food products, environmental protection).
The heads of government also approved the cooperation concept in science, engineering and technology and the concept of digital transformation of the chemical complex of the CIS member states, as well as action plans for their implementation. According to the press service, the first document provides for the creation of an enabling environment for interstate cooperation in science, engineering and technology, collaboration of researchers in breakthrough areas of science, engineering and technology. The second document reflects the consolidated position of the CIS member states on the goals, principles, mechanisms and main areas of interaction during the digital transformation of the chemical industry. The objective of cooperation in this field is development of a common vision of the digital transformation of the chemical complex, the expansion of mutually beneficial cooperation, creation, development and application of digital platforms in the chemical industry.
In addition, documents were signed on the interstate radio navigation program for 2023-2026, as well as on the interstate program “Reclamation of the territories of states affected by uranium mining”.
The heads of government approved the regulation on the operator of the CIS innovative cooperation program until 2030 and the regulation on the accreditation and participation of legal entities and individuals in this program.
They also approved the action plan to hold the Year of the Russian Language as the language of interethnic communication in the Commonwealth of Independent States in 2023. “The document contains more than 150 points. It provides for holding a number of scientific, educational and cultural events to improve the Russian language teaching skills, identify and support gifted children and youth in the field of Russian studies, encourage citizens of the CIS countries to study in Russian universities, to build contacts between libraries and book publishers. A separate section of the plan is devoted to information support for the Year of the Russian Language in the CIS,” the press service of the CIS Executive Committee said.
The participants of the meeting also passed a plan of priority actions in the field of humanitarian cooperation for 2023-2024. “The development and adoption of this document was prompted by the need to coordinate multilateral cooperation in education, science, culture, information and mass communications, book publishing, book distribution and printing, sports and a healthy lifestyle, tourism, youth policy. The plan contains nine sections and more than 200 events,” the press service added.
As far as cooperation in defense and security is concerned, the heads of government approved funding of the further development of the CIS unified air defense system.
The CIS countries will keep financing the interstate program to support war veterans who took part in local conflicts and their family members in 2021-2025. Adjustments were made to the work of the Warriors-Internationalists Affairs Committee under the CIS Council of Heads of Government. The committee will continue in 2020-2024 the search for the servicemen who went missing during the war in Afghanistan in 1979-1989, the search for burial sites, exhumation, identification of the remains and their reburial in the homeland.
In addition, the parties discussed a large block of issues related to the financing of the CIS agencies.
