Itar-Tass, Russia
March 19 2005

CIS may sign declaration on humanitarian cooperation in May

MINSK, March 19 (Itar-Tass) — The CIS heads of state may sign a
declaration on humanitarian cooperation in May of this year.

The Russian delegation issued the text of the document at a meeting
of the CIS Executive Committee in Minsk on Friday.

`No one is ready to evaluate it now,’ an official at the CIS
Executive Secretariat told Itar-Tass.

The participants in the meeting discussed 21 issues and adopted
relevant decisions. `All documents were signed by the Collective
Security Treaty Organisation member states (Armenia, Belarus,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan),’ he said.

The GUAM countries (Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Moldova) signed
six documents.

`Uzbekistan did not sign any documents because it was represented by
acting permanent representative to the CIS bodies,’ the official
said.