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Speech by
Professor E.M.Malitikov,
Chairman of the CIS Interstate Committee for Knowledge Dissemination and Adult Education,
President of the International Association “Znanie”,
to listeners of the experimental training course
“International Education and the Moscow School”,
Department of Education of the Moscow City Government
Moscow, March 29, 2007
Dear Colleagues!
Virtually the entire world today is a collection of regional blocs connected by common economic and geopolitical interests. Against the background of world economic globalization all of them satisfy, first of all, the corporate interests of the uniting states. And this is their strength, which is incomparable with the capabilities of a single country.
The existence of the Commonwealth of Independent States convincingly shows that the most important motives of interstate cooperation are economic interest, the creation of mutually beneficial system, which allows each participant to realize its economic possibilities, compensate the disadvantages of its own development and distribution of productive forces.
The Commonwealth of Independent States was founded on December 8, 1991 by the leaders of the Republic of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine.
Objectives:
implementation of cooperation in the political, economic, ecological, humanitarian, cultural and other fields;
balanced economic and social development;
ensuring human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with the universally recognized principles and norms of the international law;
peaceful settlement of disputes and conflicts between the states of the Commonwealth.
The most important strategic objectives:
formation of a free trade zone;
Combating organized crime and international terrorism.
Interaction is carried out through the Council of Heads of State, Council of Heads of Government, Council of Foreign Ministers, Council of Defense Ministers, Council of Commanders of Border Troops, Interparliamentary Assembly, Economic Court of Justice and sectoral interstate bodies.
The desire to find consensus simultaneously in many areas of possible cooperation prompted some states of the Commonwealth to turn to such forms of cooperation as the creation of bilateral and multilateral regional interstate associations. As a result, five regional economic associations were formed in the CIS.
Union State (Republic of Belarus and Russian Federation)
The Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) unites six states: the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan and the Republic of Uzbekistan.
The Central Asian Economic Community (CAC) (Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Republic of Tajikistan and Republic of Uzbekistan) was born and ceased to exist.
GUAM is an organization that unites four states: the Republic of Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine.
The regional economic associations of the CIS member states have significant differences in the interdependence of their economies.
On September 19, 2003 the Agreement on the formation of the Common Economic Space (CES) was signed.
Maintaining a balance of interests and economic feasibility is the main condition for the reliability of CIS interstate regional economic associations and the development of integration processes in the Commonwealth.
The CIS Executive Committee is located in Moscow and was established by the Council of Heads of State Decision of April 2, 1999 on improving and reforming the structure of CIS bodies. It carries out its activities on the basis of the Regulation on the CIS Executive Committee approved by the Council of Heads of State on June 21, 2000. According to the Regulation, the Executive Committee is a permanent executive body of the Commonwealth of Independent States, it ensures the organization of the Council of Heads of State, the Council of Heads of Government, the Council of Foreign Ministers, the Economic Council and other bodies of the Commonwealth; it is guided by the fundamental documents of the CIS, treaties concluded between the states, decisions of the highest bodies of the CIS;
Together with the Council of Permanent Plenipotentiary Representatives of the CIS member states, the Executive Committee develops, together with the states, proposals for the development prospects of the Commonwealth, draft documents and submits them for consideration by the CIS governing bodies.
The areas of activity of the Executive Committee include:
multilateral production cooperation,
formation of transport corridors,
establishment of investment cooperation,
resolving issues of freedom of transit, especially of pipeline, automobile and railway transport,
settlement of migration and humanitarian problems,
fight against organized crime and terrorism,
improvement of the legal framework of economic cooperation and integration,
formation of the information space.
The CIS Executive Committee together with representatives of states:
formulates draft agendas for meetings of the high bodies,
drafts unified budgets for CIS bodies and carries out follow-up control over budget implementation,
conducts expert legal review of the submitted agreements and decisions,
organizes the registration of documents of the principal organs and maintains the archives,
is the depository of adopted documents.
The most important task of the Executive Committee is to ensure quality preparation of procedures and organization of work of the Commonwealth bodies,
During the period from December 8, 1991 to the present day 34 meetings of the Council of Heads of States, 7 informal meetings of heads of States, 48 meetings of the Council of Heads of Governments, 40 meetings of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, 32 meetings of the CIS Economic Council were held.
The 15-year period of CIS functioning has condensed the most difficult problems and tasks, which, as a matter of fact, have no analogues, let alone tested algorithms of their solution.
The creation of the Commonwealth was, first of all, a political step aimed at preserving the system of economic, cultural and historical ties in the post-Soviet area.
The formation of the Commonwealth was influenced by sincere illusions widespread at the time. It was supposed that the cultural and historical unity would naturally remain at the same level.
That is, in the basic documents of the CIS, a high-level integration bid was made. The building of the Commonwealth was largely built on inflated expectations, which became one of the reasons for the subsequent disappointment and criticism of it.
The tendency to oppose the concepts of national statehood and interstate integration dominated.
As a result, many problems remained unresolved, and public opinion about the CIS’s low effectiveness became stronger.
It would be a mistake to assess the development of the Commonwealth only in a negative light. The Commonwealth proved to be not only an instrument for the “civilized divorce” of the former Soviet republics, but also fulfilled an important and extremely difficult historical mission: it formed the basis for new interstate relations in the post-Soviet territory.
It also became a solid foundation for the independence of the states and a guarantor of the development of mutually beneficial cooperation between them.
The question of the Commonwealth’s future has moved from the theoretical to the practical plane.
Without concerted collective efforts, it is impossible to effectively combat the growing scale of international terrorism, organized crime, drug trafficking, the threat of man-made disasters, and the consequences of devastating natural disasters.
Through the efforts of all the CIS member states, a comprehensive legal and organizational system has been created and is in place to counter crime, acts of terrorism and other manifestations of extremism, illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs, illegal migration and human trafficking. The main result of joint work is preserving control over the criminogenic situation in the space of the states-participants of the Commonwealth. And here it is extremely important not to lose the existing potential.
A key resource in the humanitarian sphere.
Work is underway on forming the educational space of the CIS in the area of health, labor and social protection.
The Commonwealth is at a complex and extremely responsible stage. Forecasted scenarios of its further development are contradictory and even polar.
However, we do not share the pessimistic sentiments. For the well-being of people in the Commonwealth is based on this.
Thank you for your attention.
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