Minsk to host CIS ministerial consultations on OSCE issues 1 November

MINSK, 30 October (BelTA) – Heads of departments and agencies of the Foreign Ministries of the Commonwealth of Independent States will gather for consultations on the OSCE issues at the CIS Executive Committee in Minsk on 1 November, BelTA learnt from the press service of the CIS Executive Committee.

The participants of the meeting are set to discuss issues related to cooperation of the CIS in OSCE, the Helsinki + 40 process and the preparation for the 20th meeting of the OSCE Foreign Ministers Council in Kyiv that is due in early December 2013.

CIS ministerial consultations, held since 1995, serve as a key instrument of political cooperation in the Commonwealth of Independent States. The major objective of the consultations is a wide exchange of information and opinion on the most important political issues, regional and global policy of mutual interest. The focus is always placed on the interests of the CIS countries and efficient coordination of all possible joint actions.

During the consultations its participants analyze problems that inhibit advancement of joint initiatives in international organizations, consider, if necessary, certain points of draft agendas for CIS Foreign Ministers Council meetings and provide positions of the CIS member states for developing consensus on the issues under discussion.