President Karimov Attends CIS Summit in Ashgabat

   President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov visited December 5 Turkmenistan’s Ashgabat to take part in the regular session of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Council of the Heads of State.
  Prior to the summit, the presidents of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan held a conversation. In a friendly environment underpinned by the spirit of mutual confidence and openness, Islam Karimov and Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov discussed the current state and prospects of Uzbek-Turkmen relations and the cooperation of our two countries within the CIS.
  Later, the session of CIS Council of the Heads of State addressed a range of draft documents designed to enhance regional cooperation in economic and humanitarian spheres and that in security issues.
  Worth noting here that the emergence of the Commonwealth was conditioned by an objective necessity to preserve the traditional humanitarian, economic and other ties amid the new historical developments caused by the emergence of new independent states.
  For the period of its existence, the CIS has proved its viability as a political platform for discussing and tackling issues pertinent to political, economic, humanitarian interaction by the means of international law.
  The CIS has been instrumental in instituting the new architecture of relations among member nations, in addressing regional and interregional development.
  The Commonwealth countries have for more than two decades sought to promote mutually advantageous and multilayered cooperation and consolidate the institutional potency in dealing with pressing challenges of our times.
  The Ashgabat summit participants, though, recognized the necessity to boost the effectiveness of the existing mechanisms of multilateral interaction within the CIS, along with the perfection of organizational and judicial as well as institutional base of the Commonwealth in order to move toward greater economic progress and prosperity of the peoples in member countries.
  Developing on these premises, the sides expressed willingness to continue to work together toward the reinforcement of CIS role in shaping the system of regional and interregional relations, to facilitate its viability and efficiency as a cooperation mechanism that would suit contemporary requirements.
  The current trends are underscored by the considerable intensification of economic factors in international relations. Thus the summit contributors identified the realization of economic interaction within the CIS as a pivotal task in addressing socio-economic issues in complex. The most promising directions of cooperation in this respect can include the creation of international transport and communications pathways, the advancement of energy and scientific-technological partnership, building up export capacities and encouraging investment activities.
  Another no less important objective has been stressed at the meeting, namely, the consolidation of cultural and humanitarian collaboration that would facilitate a comprehensive dynamism of the CIS.
  The sides pointed out the feasibility of keeping with joint efforts directed at improving the activity of the Commonwealth and its normative base with an eye to international practice in managing international processes. The session participants expressed firm conviction in the requirement to proceed with developing relations in all different kinds of spheres and help reinforce friendship and cooperation among member nations.
  Summing up the negotiations, the summit participants adopted the Declaration of CIS Heads of State on bolstering comprehensive cooperation. Other documents signed at the ceremony have included that on announcing 2013 as the Year of Ecologic Culture and Environmental Protection in the CIS, on the progress being made in implementing earlier agreements on interaction in information and communications.
  It has been decided to pass chairmanship in the CIS on to the Republic of Belarus.
  The next session of CIS Council of the Heads of State is scheduled for October 2013 in the city of Minsk.

UzA, 6 December 2012