DUSHANBE, April 4, 2015, Asia-Plus -- Senior representatives of foreign ministries of the CIS member nations have gathered in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, to discuss ways to expand cooperation.

According to the CIS Executive Committee, the foreign ministers of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, deputy foreign ministers of Moldova and Uzbekistan, and special envoys from Azerbaijan and Ukraine attended the meeting on April 3. 

The talks reportedly touched upon joint efforts to resolve “"the crisis along the CIS borders.”

The meeting participants, in particular, discussed the implementation of the plan of multiple inter-ministerial consultations for 2014 and endorsed the plant of inter-ministerial consultations for this year.

They also endorsed a draft program of cooperation in strengthening border security at the external borders of the CIS designed for 2016-2020, a draft agreement on cooperation between the CIS nations in preventing emergency situations and mitigating their effects, and a draft agreement on teachers’ advanced training.

The meeting participants also endorsed a draft decision on formation of an alignment of border and other services of the CIS nations that would be solving crisis situation at the external borders, a draft regulations on information cooperation, a draft agreement on a single system of registration of citizens of the third states and stateless persons entering the CIS nations, a draft concept of development of military-applied sports in the armed forces of the CIS nations during the period until 2020, etc.  

The next meeting of the CIS Foreign Ministers’ Council will take place in Astana, Kazakhstan in the fall this year.

We will recall that the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) foreign ministers gathered in Dushanbe on April 2 for a meeting of the regional security alliance, which groups Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan.