BAKU, 3 May (BelTA) - The priority for CIS state news agencies is joint counteraction to new security threats, Chairman of the Council of Heads of CIS State News Agencies, TASS Director General Andrei Kondrashov said at the 31st meeting of the Council of Heads of the CIS State News Agencies (CIS Information Council) in Baku on 3 May, BelTA has learned.
“Russia’s presidency in the CIS is aimed at further strengthening the CIS as an integration association, increasing its international prestige, developing cooperation between the CIS and other international organizations, as well as all the stakeholders. Another important goal is to deepen economic integration, including in the context of creating a common economic space, cooperation in energy, industrial and agro-industrial cooperation, digitalization, transport and communications, ecology and climate protection, scientific, technical and innovation cooperation,” Andrei Kondrashov said. “The priority is also the improvement of mechanisms for joint counteraction to traditional and new challenges and threats to the security of the CIS member states, strengthening cooperation in the military sector and border security. All of the above is of interest and relevance to all our states. We must take this into account and prioritize it in our information work.”
According to him, an obvious task for the state news agencies in the cultural and humanitarian sector is to strengthen the common cultural and humanitarian space of the CIS, popularize the existing strategies in physical education, sports, tourism and international youth cooperation. “Events conducted within the framework of the Year of Volunteer Movement announced in the CIS in 2024, the CIS Capital of Culture interstate program (Samarkand), the CIS Youth Capital international projects (Tashkent) should not get lost in our news coverage efforts,” the chairman of the council said. “Special attention should be paid to the activities of such structures as the CIS Interstate Fund for Humanitarian Cooperation and the CIS Council for Humanitarian Cooperation. It is pleasant to note that we have already accumulated solid experience of interaction with these organizations.”
“We also must cover the celebrations of the CIS memorable dates related to the cultural and historical heritage of the CIS states, cooperation in music, theater, fine arts, cinema, libraries and museums. Our task is to promote contacts between cultural and artistic figures, events that contribute to the strengthening of cooperation in the physical education and sports,” Andrei Kondrashov said. “An important area of our work remains the support of measures to combat falsification of history and attempts to rehabilitate Nazism, to preserve the historical truth about the Great Patriotic War. In this regard, we need to pay special attention to the preparation for the Year of the 80th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War in the CIS in 2025 - the Year of Peace and Unity in the Fight against Nazism.”
The CIS Information Council is held on the sidelines of the 6th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue “Dialogue for Peace and Global Security” which has united representatives of more than 110 countries, including Belarus, in Baku. This testifies to the fact that the event is an important international platform for conducting an intercultural dialogue.
