CIS operation optimization will be discussed at the meeting of the CIS council of foreign ministers on April 8

Almaty. April 5. Silkroadnews - One of the key issues of the meeting of council of foreign ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) scheduled for April 8, 2016, will be the reform of the organization, “Kommersant” newspaper says.

The newspaper reminds, the proposal to make the CIS operation and structure more efficient has been made by Kazakhstan. At the same time in his interview with the Kommersant the director of the First CIS Department at the Russian Foreign Ministry Mikhail Yevdokimov explained why the CIS does not need “sweeping reforms” and what approach should be used to improve the organization.

“The issue on the agenda today is the question of the CIS possible adaptation to the requirements of today’s time. This initiative was proposed by the president of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev in October last year. (...) along with other our CIS partners we consider this initiative as a good basis for finding the ways to improve our organization,” he said.

He noted that for 25 years of successful cooperation in the CIS format, the organization confirmed its relevance and ability to cope with the tasks efficiently.

“Yet the time zips along. We shall take into account the developments in the region. I mean the entry of new, more advanced integration organizations as CSTO, EEU, as well as the new challenges our countries face. First of all, it is a difficult economic situation in the CIS countries. This all shall be taken into account in the practice of building the multilateral cooperation within the CIS,” said M. Yevdokimov.

He also added at present the parties work actively over a comprehensive analysis of the Commonwealth’s activities and operations to further improve the forms of its work to strengthen its regional and international prestige. And noted that the issues of the organization’s possible reforming have been consistently discussed at the working level and this topic is included in the agenda of the upcoming meeting of the Foreign Ministers Council to be held in Moscow on April 8.

“We hope that in the end we shall come to a more sustainable model of cooperation to effectively confront crises, strengthen the rational, free from the ideology of domination, flexible formats of cooperation within the CIS aimed to solve the common problems of security, law enforcement, economic, humanitarian and number of other areas,” M. Yevdokimov said.