Georgian, Moldovan premiers stress need to reform CIS

Rustavi-2 TV, Tbilisi
3 Jun 05

[Presenter] We are going back to the Marriott Hotel in Tbilisi where
the summit of the heads of government of CIS countries has ended. The
prime minister of Georgia is making a statement as we speak.

[Zurab Noghaideli, prime minister of Georgia, speaking at a joint
news briefing, in Russian; recording starts in mid-sentence] –
only nine [issues]. This once again testifies to the need to reform
the Commonwealth of Independent States and to give it an additional
momentum. Every member of the CIS must have opportunities to realize
their own national interests in the framework of the CIS. We should
be moving in this direction.

I would like to once again welcome the guests, the prime ministers,
the heads of governments, the heads of delegations, and I would like
to give the floor to the chairman, Mr Tarlev. Mr Tarlev, please.

[Vasile Tarlev, prime minister of Moldova, in Russian] Thank you
very much.

First of all, I would like to thank our hospitable friend, the
prime minister of Georgia, and the entire Georgian nation, for the
opportunity to meet in Tbilisi today. I would like to thank all of my
colleagues, all of my friends, the prime ministers of the Commonwealth
of Independent States for their support and cooperation during my
chairmanship of the CIS Council of Heads of Governments, a post I
have held for over a year. I would also like to congratulate [Russian
Prime Minister] Mikhail Yefimovich Fradkov on his election as chairman.

As regards the cooperation within the CIS in the past year, of course
we wish we had done better and more. However, as it has already been
stressed today, we will move forward slowly, but persistently and
steadily, towards removing all the barriers in the way of business and
free economic trade, and we will support [each other] in regional and
international relations, taking into account the national interests
of all the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Naturally, I would like the CIS – since we have been speaking about
reforming the Commonwealth of Independent States for more than a year
– we hope that this year, year 2005, will become a decisive year in
taking effective measures to make the Commonwealth of Independent
States a more attractive and more specific [organization]. [We hope]
that the documents we are adopting will be working at full capacity
in all CIS countries.

Thank you very much.

[Female voice] The press may ask questions.

[Question from an Armenian journalist; name of the journalist and
newspaper indistinct due to poor sound quality] I have a question to
Mr Rushaylo. Many countries are talking about the need to reform the
CIS into a new kind of organization. Have you discussed this? How
can this be done?

[Vladimir Rushaylo, CIS secretary, in Russian] Thank you for the
question.

I would like to remind you that we are guided by the instructions
from the heads of states given to us at the summit in Kazakhstan on
17 September last year and the informal summit in Moscow on 8 May
this year.

All heads of states, without exception, think that there are
three fundamental areas of cooperation and development within the
Commonwealth of Independent States. These are economic integration,
first of all, security issues and humanitarian cooperation.

At today’s meeting of the heads of governments economic integration
was the main subject of discussion. As far as structural reforms are
concerned, I do want to run ahead of events. The Council of Heads of
States has instructed the Council of Foreign Ministers and a working
group has been set up. It will work out proposals to improve the
structures of the Commonwealth of Independent States and make them
more efficient. The final decision –

[Presenter] Vladimir Rushaylo has said that economic issues were at the
heart of today’s discussion. The chairman of the meeting, the prime
minister of Moldova, said, however, that year 2005 will be decisive
in reforming the CIS. The prime minister of Russia, Mikhail Fradkov,
has been elected as council chairman.