Dushanbe intends to host a number of cultural events with participation of CIS cultural and art workers.

Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin made the remarks in Dushanbe yesterday while attending a session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the CIS Member Nations via video link, according to the Tajik MFA information department.  

Foreign ministers of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, as well as the Chairman of the CIS Executive Committee Sergei Lebedev also participated in the meeting.

The meeting’s agenda reportedly included 12 items, including the issue of COVID-19 prevention and response.

The Council members reportedly exchanged views on the international situation and the results and new priority areas of interaction within the CIS, with a special emphasis on joint actions to overcome the negative effects of the coronavirus pandemic.  

The ministers also reviewed the documents that will be submitted to the CIS Council of Heads of State, which will be held online on December 18.

Council, including the draft statements on the 75th anniversary of the United Nations Organization and on cooperation in international information security, the concepts of the CIS development and of military cooperation and the draft cooperation program to strengthen border security on the external borders.   The Council members reportedly approved a number of documents at the December 10 meeting, including a concept of military cooperation between CIS member states to 2025.

Speaking at the meeting, Tajik foreign minister, in particular, noted that the current crisis has led to decrease in the pace of domestic and foreign trade, affected business activity and cooperation between the CIS member nations in the fields of investment, tourism and transportation and endangered food security of the CIS member nations.

The meeting participants also positively assessed the implementation of the Program “Shymkent – CIS Cultural Capital 2020”, taking into account the circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.  In 2021, the status of “CIS Cultural Capital” passes to Dushanbe.

In this context, Muhriddin noted that with improvement of the sanitary-epidemiological situation Tajikistan intends to hold a number of events with participation of the CIS cultural and art figures. 

The next meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the CIS Member Countries will take place in April next year in the Russian Federation.    

The Council of Foreign Minister of the CIS Member Nations is the main executive body ensuring cooperation in the field of foreign policy activities of the CIS member states on the matters of mutual interest, adopting decisions during the period between the meetings of the Council of the CIS Heads of State, the Council of the CIS Heads of Government and by their orders.  The first session of the Council took place in August 1993. 

CIS members are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.  Turkmenistan has an associate status in the grouping.

Ukraine quitted the grouping in 2018.  In May 2018, the then President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko signed a decree that formally ended Kyiv’s membership in the grouping.  Ukraine was an associate member of the CIS since it was established following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Georgia quitted the CIS in 2009.