Ashgabat will host the meetings of the Council of Foreign Ministers and the Council of Heads of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries on October 10-11, in the framework of Turkmenistan’s chairmanship in the CIS in 2019.
Turkmenistan’s chairmanship in the organization was announced at the past meeting of the CIS Heads of State in Dushanbe in September last year. The date of the next meeting of the CIS Heads of state was agreed at that meeting.
Following the decision of the CIS, the President of Turkmenistan took part in an informal meeting of the CIS Leaders held in the city of St. Petersburg of the Russian Federation on December 6, 2018.
Exhibition in honor of Turkmenistan’s assumption of the CIS presidency opened on January 29 in the building of the Commonwealth Executive Committee in Minsk, in which the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Turkmenistan to Belarus Nazarguly Shagulyyev took part. On the same day, a meeting of the CIS representatives took place under the chairmanship of Turkmenistan.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan posted the Concept of the Presidency of Turkmenistan in the Commonwealth on its official website in March this year. In accordance with the action plan to implement this concept, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov signed a number of resolutions on April 1. According to the resolutions, Office of the Presidential Administration of Turkmenistan and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will carry out organizational work of the meetings of the Council of Heads of Government and the Council of Heads of State of the CIS. The resolutions also identified local ministries responsible for the XIV Forum of Creative and Scientific Intelligentsia of the CIS.
Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers, Foreign Minister of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov led a Turkmen delegation to the CIS annual meeting of foreign ministers on April 4-6 in Moscow. During the meeting, Rashid Meredov and Sergey Lavrov signed an intergovernmental agreement in ensuring international information security. Turkmen foreign minister and his Belarusian counterpart also signed a cooperation plan between the Ministries of the two countries for the period 2019-2020 on the sidelines of the meeting.
As part of the concept, Ashgabat hosted the XIV Forum of Creative and Scientific Intelligentsia of the CIS member states was held on May 15-16. Chairman of the Executive Committee - Executive Secretary of the CIS Sergey Lebedev, who arrived in Ashgabat to participate in the forum, met with the President of Turkmenistan. The theme of the forum, with the participation of more than 200 delegates, was «Common humanitarian space of the Commonwealth: Dialogue in the field of culture, science and education».
Ashgabat hosted the meeting of the Council of the CIS Heads of Governments. Following the results of participants, participants signed the Interstate program of innovative cooperation of the CIS countries for the period up to 2030, which combines the capabilities of national innovation systems of the CIS member states.
Commonwealth countries also discussed a number of important issues at the 83rd meeting of the CIS Economic Council on September 13 in Ashgabat. One of the main topics of the meeting was the draft Declaration on Strategic Economic Cooperation of the CIS member states.
Ashgabat previously chaired the CIS in 2012.bBUS
