Council of the Permanent Representatives of the CIS Member Nations held its regular session in Minsk

On 28 August, the CIS Executive Committee provided a venue for the meeting of the Council of the Permanent Representatives of the CIS Member Nations at the Statutory and Other Bodies of the Commonwealth under the presidency of Permanent Plenipotentiary Representative of Turkmenistan at the CIS Statutory and Other Bodies, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Turkmenistan to the Republic of Belarus Nazarkuly Shakulyev.

First Deputy Chairman of the CIS Executive Committee Viktor Guminskiy and Deputy Chairman of the CIS Executive Committee Agybay Smagulov attended the meeting. Deputy Chairman of the CIS Executive Committee Sergey Ivanov joined the meeting via videoconferencing from Moscow.    

During the meeting the candidature of Chairman of Executive Committee – Executive Secretary of the CIS Sergey Lebedev was approved for the position of Head of the CIS Observer Team at the parliamentary elections in the Republic of Belarus to be held on 17 November 2019.

Members of the Council of Permanent Representatives discussed the preparation of the Action Plan for Enhanced Cooperation of CIS MFAs. The draft Action Plan was developed by Turkmenistan in accordance with the initiative of the President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow expressed in October 2017 during the meeting of the Council of the CIS Heads of State.

The draft document provides for actions to develop and strengthen foreign policy cooperation among the CIS Member Nations both across the Commonwealth and in the international organizations, as well as defines the mechanisms and areas for cooperation to address key global and regional challenges.

During the meeting, the plenipotentiary representatives discussed a draft agenda for the next meeting of the Council of the CIS Heads of Government, which will be held in Moscow on 25 October.

A list of items subject to the approval at the upcoming meetings of the CIS Economic Council (13 September) and the Council of the CIS Foreign Ministers (10 October) was included in the draft agenda.

In the smaller session the heads of government are expected to exchange views on relevant issues of economic cooperation across the CIS and define the date and venue for the next meeting. During the extended meeting it is expected to consider the Concept of CIS Cooperation for Development of Digital Society and the Priority Action Plan for its implementation, as well as the CIS Strategy on Information Security. It is expected that during the meeting documents regulating the CIS cooperation in the field of standardization, veterinary medicine, anti-monopoly regulation, development of radio navigation, and reclamation of the territories of the states exposed to uranium mining operations will be signed.

The next meeting of the Council of the Permanent Representatives is scheduled for 25 September.