Working visit of President Serzh Sargsyan to the Republic of Kazakhstan

President Serzh Sargsyan, who has paid a working visit to the Republic of Kazakhstan, took part on October 16 in the session of the CIS Council of Heads of State in Burabay. The session was presided over by the host country’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Prior to going on to the discussion of the agenda items, the CIS heads of state congratulated Alexander Lukashenko on taking a convincing victory in the presidential elections, and Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev on the successful end of the parliamentary elections.

During the narrow and broadened sessions of the council, the presidents discussed and adopted a wide range of issues pertaining to integration collaboration within the frames of the commonwealth, concluded around two dozen documents, including the Statement on the 70th Anniversary of the Foundation of the United Nations, the Statement on the Fight Against International Terrorism, and the Address on the 30th Anniversary of the Chernobyl Disaster.

During the session, the parties put special emphasis on security issues and attached importance to collaboration in the given sphere. The CIS heads of state signed a number of international agreements related to the areas of law-enforcement and elimination of consequences of natural and technogenic emergency situations. The council session also adopted the 2020 Concept Paper on Defense Cooperation, the 2016-2020 Cooperation Program on Strengthening the Security of External Borders, and approved the list of the CIS member states’ border and other agency formations aimed at dealing with crisis situations on the CIS member states’ external borders.

The CIS heads of state also dwelled on the issues aimed at deepening humanitarian collaboration. The parties decided to implement the program “Cultural Capitals for Cooperation” in Turkmenistan, proclaiming the country’s Daşoguz city as a 2016 CIS cultural capital.

It was decided to hold the next summit of the CIS heads of state on October 16 2016 in Kyrgyzstan. The 2016 CIS chairmanship was taken by the Republic of Kyrgyzstan.

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Following the session of the CIS Council of Heads of State, President Serzh Sargsyan participated in the narrow and broadened sessions of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in Kazakhstan.

During the discussions, EAEU Heads of State, Serzh Sargsyan of the Republic of Armenia, Alexander Lukashenko of the Republic of Belarus, Nursultan Nazarbayev of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Almazbek Atambayev of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan and RF President Vladimir Putin touched upon the urgent problems of the union and its development prospects. As a result of the meeting, the parties signed a number of documents that define the order of collaboration with third countries and international organizations. Particularly, the members of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council approved the Main Areas of the Eurasian Economic Union’s International Activity for 2015-2016 and the Approaches to Promoting Medium-Term Trade and Economic Cooperation with the EAEU Main Partners.

During the session, the parties resolved to start negotiations with the State of Israel on creating a free trade zone. The given resolution was adopted based on the results of the report made by a joint research group.

The EAEU heads of state approved the list of service types. In this regard, the creation of a EAEU common services market will be carried out in accordance with the liberalization plan-timetable. The parties also approved the provisions on conducting external audit in EAEU bodies.

The parties discussed issues pertaining to human resources management, including the issue on conditions for locating the EAEU Court in the Republic of Belarus and on the appointment of judges from the Republic of Kyrgyzstan.

The session of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council also established the order of admitting new EAEU members and membership termination.

The session approved the issue pertaining to the appointment of the EAEU Collegium President. According to the established order, Tigran Sureni Sargsyan of the Republic of Armenia will occupy that post on February 1 2016.