Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has arrived in the Belarusian capital Minsk where he will participate at a meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

The Azerbaijani President was welcomed by senior Belarusian government officials at the Minsk National Airport.

President Aliyev was seen off by Prime Minister Artur Rasizade, head of the Presidential Administration Ramiz Mehdiyev and head of the Executive Power of Baku Hajibala Abutalibov at the Heydar Aliyev International Airport.

The agenda of the meeting, which is being held on October 25, includes a range of issues aimed at further development of multilateral cooperation within the CIS.

In particular, the leaders plan to review the preparations for the celebration of the 70th anniversary of victory in World War II, including the declaration to announce 2015 as Year of War Veterans in the CIS, as well as issues related to the establishment of common commemorative awards, honorary orders and commemorative medals.

The agenda also includes the issue of declaring 2014 as Year of Tourism in the CIS, which should contribute to initiating common coordination in the tourism sector of CIS member states.

In the area of ensuring security, participants are expected to discuss and adopt a number of mid-term interstate programs envisaging joint efforts on fighting crime, terrorism and other forms of violent extremism, illegal drug turnover, psychotropic substances and their precursors, drug addiction and human trafficking.

The heads of state are also expected to discuss a concept of cooperation among the CIS member states in fighting crime by using information technologies.

In order to coordinate the fight against corruption within the CIS, a draft agreement on the establishment of Interstate Council to combat corruption will be submitted for consideration by the heads of state.

In addition, issues pertaining to the protection of secret information as well as further cooperation of CIS member states in the fields of financial, currency, payment and credit relations will be discussed during the meeting.