FUTURE DEVELOPMENT CONCEPTION OF CIS WILL BE FOCUS OF ATTENTION IN CIS SUMMIT: EXECUTIVE SECRETARY

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
Oct 2 2007

Azerbaijan, Baku /corr. Trend E.Huseynov, A.Gasimova / Trend interview
with the Chairman of the Executive Committee, Executive Secretary of
the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Vladimir Rushaylo, on
a night before the CIS Summit scheduled for 4-5 October in Tajikistan.

– What key issues will be the focus of attention during the upcoming
Summit of the CIS State Heads in Dushanbe?

– The project of the agenda of the upcoming Summit of the CIS State
Heads has been devised on the base of the proposals, coordinated at
the meeting of the CIS Council of Permanent Representatives with the
participation of other CIS bodies and includes 20 questions.

According to the procedure, the project has been sent to the President
of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, the chairman of the Council,
for consideration. On 4 October the project of the agenda will be
considered at the meeting of the CIS Council of Foreign Ministers. The
concluding decision will be made by the Presidents. No doubt that the
main issue of the upcoming meeting will be the Future Development
Conception of the Commonwealth of Independent States and Plan of
Measures on its realization. During the June meeting of the CIS
State Heads in St. Petersburg, the State Heads agreed to annually
accentuate the attention and select one most important problem, on
which a consensus decision will be made. Firstly Kazakhstan suggested
considering the migration problem. A group was established to devise
proposals on coordinated migration policy of the CIS participating
countries. The proposals devised by the Group will also be considered
by the Presidents. In addition, during the meeting of the Presidents
of the countries it is planned to sign the project of Agreement on
Education of the Council of Heads of Migration Organizations of the CIS
member-countries. New impulses will be provided to the development of
the co-operation of the law-enforcement bodies of the CIS countries due
to the presidents signing an Agreement on Fighting against Legalization
(laundering) of the criminal revenues and financing of terrorism, as
well as Agreement on co-operation of the CIS countries in fighting
against misappropriation of the cultural values and ensuring their
returning. Co-operation in ensuring the security and fighting against
the criminality has always been one of the priority questions on the
agenda of the CIS supreme bodies. The upcoming Summit is planned to
cover the pack of documents regulating the co-operation of the CIS
countries in this sphere – 2008-2010 Inter-State program of joint
fighting against criminality, 2008-2010 program of co-operation
of CIS countries in fighting against illegal turnover of narcotics,
psychotropic substances and 2008-2010 program of CIS States in fighting
against terrorism and other extremisms.

– How do You consider, how fully are the potentials of multilateral
and bilateral co-operation, including economic interactions, within
the CIS?

The CIS States are objectively interested in creating favorable
conditions for the development of the national economies, ensuring
security, improving humanitarian co-operation. Currently the economic
co-operation is the priority for the CIS. The full-scale commercial
and economic co-operation of the CIS participating countries is the
condition necessary for sustainable development.

Whilst coordinating the economic co-operation within the CIS, changes
are taking place with regards to the properties, key institutes of the
market economy are gradually established, methods of the money-credit
and currently regulation are applied, new economic, organizational
and production ties are established between the agricultural entities
of the countries.

Due to the CIS activity, it was successful to maintain and develop
commercial and economic and agricultural relations. The Inter-State
and Inter-Governmental economic agreements signed within the CIS
provided an opportunity to create institutional and legal conditions
form for equal-right dialogue and mutually beneficial co-operation
on complicated economic problems.

The activity of the CIS, as well as Inter-State and Inter-Governmental
CIS Councils in developing integration processes positively affected
the economic growth rates of the CIS countries.

Generally the results of the economic development over the past years
testify the transition of the CIS countries from the economic stability
to the sustainable economic development.

On the base of the existing resource potentials, the CIS participating
countries could achieve significant development of the macroeconomic
indicators. Particularly the GDP in 2006 increased by 50% over the
CIS as compared to 2000. The volume of the industrial products rose
by 46%, agricultural products – 26%, cargo transportation – 39%. The
retail turnover increased by two times, paid services – 1.5 times,
investments to key capital – two times.

The number of the employed people in the CIS countries increased by
5.4% and made up 133mln. The inflation decreased and became stabilized
and the national currencies rose. However, we have something to realize
in the Future Development Conception which has been fully formed on the
base of the directions, tasks in the economic co-operation, including
completing large-scale regime of the free trade; developing transport
co-operation, as well as forming network of the international transport
corridors in the CIS territory; strengthening the energy co-operation
to increase reliability of the energy supply and optimization of using
fuel and energy resources; multilateral co-operation in producing,
transporting and transiting hydrocarbons; devising and developing
large-scale investment projects with regards to transport, energy,
communications; creating effective mechanisms of the payment and
account relations; establishing financial-industrial groups, transport
companies; joint ventures and other forms of economic co-operation;
integration into the world economy. Within the CIS, works are going
on in determining the priorities in development of the production
and export of the high technologies and competitive products,
opportunities are based to form Inter-State financial-industrial groups
and trans-national companies, projects and mechanisms are prepared
to realize technologically unique fuel and energy and transport
systems, mechanisms are prepared to co-ordinate and realize tariff
policy for the transport and communication services, joint ventures
are established, the market of the securities develops, information
and marketing system is formed to improve commodities and services
in the national markets of the CIS States.

Theses and other measures will provide an opportunity to accelerate the
integration processes, attach new qualities to them, increase integral
and systematic economic area, ensure stability and sustainability
and significantly decrease the disbalance in the economic development.

– For more than ten years, the OSCE Minsk Group has holding peaceful
talks on the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Can the
CIS play the role of mediator in finding a prompt agreement between
Armenia and Azerbaijan?

The CIS understands that the unsettled conflicts on the CIS territory
significantly affect the political, social-economic development of
the States, present obstacles for the full-scale mechanisms of the
free trade zone, jeopardize the peace and stability in the concrete
region and generally in the CIS territory. The Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict is regulated by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by Russia,
France and the USA. Such a format satisfies the conflicting sides.

Up to now, the CIS has not received any appeals from Azerbaijan or
Armenia with a proposal to joint the peacekeeping process. If such a
proposal is received from the conflicting sides, the issue may find
its solution at the meeting of the CIS State Heads.

The experiences of implementing peacekeeping operations in the CIS
and legal base for it are in existence. Two documents on this topic
will be presented to discussions at the upcoming meeting of the State
Heads. These agreements regard social and legal guarantees for the
personnel of the Collective Peace Support Forces and regulations of
financially, technically and safely ensuring their activity.

– The issue of reforming the CIS is actively discussed over the recent
years. What steps may be taken in this direction?

The CIS’s was not ordinary. Strengthening the partnership within the
CIS takes place under worldwide tendencies and meets the national
interests of the participating countries. The bilateral agreements
signed under the initial existence of the CIS provided an opportunity
to ensure normal functions of the social mechanism necessary for
everyday life of the population: payments of pensions and allowances,
work of transport and energy, etc. Thus, undoubtedly the service
of the CIS in delimitation of the former Soviet countries went on
orderly and without deep geo-political shakes.

The key goal of the CIS is to form long-term integrated economic and
political union of the interested States which ensures effective
development of each participant. Of course, in order to achieve
this goal, it needs to re-consider new parameters and approaches to
co-operation within the CIS. I would like to note that the Future
Development Conception of the CIS is the key document for beginning
reforming the Commonwealth.

The project of the Future Development Conception envisages evaluation
improvement of the structure. The project describes key goal of
the CIS and common ways to achieve it, mechanism of CIS functions
and its organizational improvement. In addition, the Conception
contains priorities of the CIS activity: development of the economic
integration; humanitarian co-operation; ensuring stability and
security.

Moreover, the document highlights the necessity to strengthen the
political co-operation, inter-parliamentary co-operation, co-ordinated
migration policy, joint settlement of the ecological problems, warning
of the emergency situations and liquidation of the consequences of
the natural calamities.

I am sure that the tasks specified in the Conception and concrete
plan on its realization guarantees that the CIS will be a common
comfort house for our nations.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress