RUSHAYLO: CIS TO EMBARK ON WORKING OUT A NEW MODEL OF INTEGRATION SOON
ARKA News Agency
Sept 2 2005
MOSCOW, September 2. /ARKA/. Commonwealth of Independent States
intends to embark on working out a new model of integration adequate
either to common interests or present priorities of the Commonwealth
member countries, ARKA News Agency’s correspondent reports from
Moscow quoting CIS Executive Committee’s Secretary General Vladimir
Rushaylo as saying at his meeting with journalists from the CIS and
Baltic countries. “To solve this conceptual problem the Chairman
of the Council of Heads of States Vladimir Putin proposed to set
up a high-level group in the frame of the UN”, Rushaylo said. In
his words, not only officials, but also representatives of the
community, culture activists and persons familiar with the law and
economics are planned to be included in the group. “The decision to
improve the Commonwealth structure made at summit in Kazan is just
the first stage of CIS reformation”, Rushaylo said and added that
this work will be continued, as any reformation and optimization
envisages a series of measures, not a single-step action. Economic
cooperation based on various-levels and various-pace integration,
security and stability as well as joint resistance to new challenges
and threats, such as international terrorism, organized crime,
drug trafficking and man-caused disasters, are the CIS top-priority
directions. In his words, development of cooperation in humanitarian
area includes education, healthcare, sciences and culture. Rushaylo
also said that an agreement on humanitarian cooperation was signed
at CIS presidential meeting in Kazan. “This agreement initiated
by Russian Federation is focused on strengthening traditional ties
of the nations included in the CIS in culture, education, science,
information, mass communication, sports and tourism areas”, Rushaylo
said. In his opinion, this shows serious understanding of humanistic
values for resisting extremism, intolerance and terrorism. “Approving
the agreement on humanitarian cooperation, the states obtain needed
instrument for signing completely new projects”, the CIS official
said. He said he meant human resources, which are considered in all
countries as capacity for modernization and economic growth. M.V. -0–