Monday, 9 June 2008President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov participated in the informal meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of States in St. Petersburg, Russia, on 6 June.
The presidents discussed issues related to the formation of the draft economic development strategy in the Commonwealth until 2020, the main directions of humanitarian cooperation and the development of the CIS.
The experience of interaction within the Commonwealth over the years shows that every member country has an enormous potential for development of the integration. The economies of the Commonwealth do not compete among themselves, but on the contrary, complement each other in many ways. All member states are interested in developing the cooperation.
Taking this into consideration, all necessary legal and institutional frameworks for development of cooperation in accordance with modern requirements have been set up within the CIS. All member states may provide their further development through the expansion of mutually beneficial ties in trade, economic, sociopolitical, cultural, humanitarian, military-technical and other areas.
When it comes to the ways of developing cooperation within the Commonwealth, President Islam Karimov notes the need to follow the principle "Economy first, policy second". Nobody doubts that economic ties constitute the basis of interstate relations. When economic cooperation develops, there is economic interest between the nations and the political consent strengthens next.
To achieve these goals, the head of Uzbekistan put forward the initiative to establish the Free Trade Zone within the CIS. Of course, this process will require a lot of efforts, since the economic potential and the level of development of member states are different. Therefore, each country prefers to have its own methods and ways of cooperation and integration. Despite this, the adoption of the Concept of further development of CIS and the Plan of its implementation in 2007 was an important step in this direction. The economic sphere has also been defined as priority in this concept.
The CIS has a possibility to coordinate economic processes. This structure also serves as a source of receiving and exchanging information on the economic potential of member countries. Commonwealth summits create a convenient opportunity for the dialogue. Undoubtedly, each state determines its position regarding the discussed issues, primarily on the basis of its own national interests. |
Monday, 9 June 2008
Uzbekistan
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