Azernews.Az

By Kamila Aliyeva

Tashkent has hosted the CIS Foreign Ministers Council chaired by Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov.

The meeting was reportedly attended by Azerbaijan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian,Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei, Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov, Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Erlan Abdyldayev, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Aslov, Moldovan Deputy Foreign Minister Lilian Darii, Turkmen Deputy Foreign Minister Vepa Hajiyev, Uzbek Foreign Minister Anvar Nasirov and CIS Executive Secretary Sergey Lebedev.

The meeting participants discussed 15 draft documents and nine of them will be submitted for consideration to the CIS Council of Heads of Government that will take place in May and to the CIS Council of Heads of State that will take place in October.

The Council adopted a number of important documents including a statement condemning discrimination and intolerance towards Christians, Muslims, and representatives of other religions, the Uzbek Foreign Ministry repotted.

The statement conveys concern over the growing number of incidents targeted at Christians, Muslims, and representatives of other faiths in different regions of the world. It reiterates the commitment of the CIS member states to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.

The statement also emphasizes the absolute inadmissibility of associating terrorism and violent extremism with any specific religion. The final part of the statement conveys the intent to consolidate the positions of the international community to prevent discrimination of Christians, Muslims and representatives of other religions in universal and regional international human rights organizations.

The heads of the foreign ministries also summed up the results of the multi-level ministerial consultations that took place in 2016 and approved the plan for 2017.

This year, the CIS member states will hold consultations to discuss cooperation in international organizations, the field of information, the effort to address contemporary challenges and threats, and matters related to disarmament and economic cooperation.

Over a third of the projects approved by the CIS Foreign Ministers Council are designed to expand and strengthen the cooperation in ensuring security and countering new challenges and threats. The most important are the documents regulating the cooperation of the CIS countries in the fight against money laundering, financial of terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors, firearms, munitions, and explosives and explosive devices that are evidence in criminal cases.

The foreign ministers discussed the cooperation among the CIS member states in legal matters. They decided to give Nizhny Novgorod Academy of Russia's Ministry of the Interior the status of a basic organization for university training and advanced training of personnel for tax (financial) investigation agencies.

Besides, the ministers adopted a decision to amend the regulation on the basic organization for training of metrology specialists for the armed forces of the CIS member states.

The next meeting of the CIS Foreign Ministers Council will be held in Moscow on October 10, 2017.

The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was created in December 1991. The CIS united Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine.

However, in 2008 Georgia withdrew its membership.

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.

---

Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz