COMMONWEALTH OF "UNCOMPROMISING" STATES ADOPTS ANOTHER CONCEPT

A session of the Council of Heads of State (CHS) of the Commonwealth of Independent States was held in Dushanbe on 5 October. The council considered about 20 important issues of cooperation between its member states. The session was attended by the leaders of all CIS countries, except for the Ukrainian president. The main subject of discussion at the CHS session was the further development of the Commonwealth and cooperation between CIS member states in the humanitarian and military spheres and in the fight against terrorism and crime. The concept on the further development of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the plan of basic measures to implement it, which was submitted by the international working group responsible for drawing up the concept, topped the agenda. The document says that the limited participation of individual CIS members in the work of its agencies and documents that are adopted "is taken with understanding and respect" since it is due to their specific national interests. The document stresses that this will not prevent CIS member states from considering all options for the further development of the CIS. In the concept itself, the leaders of the CIS countries described "the establishment in the long-term of an integrated economic and political union of interested states, which will ensure the effective development of every member" as one of their main objectives. The document also says that the multi-profile nature of the CIS will be preserved and will ensure the harmonic development of all spheres of cooperation.

One of the main directions of the development of the CIS is to maintain socioeconomic stability and international security, strengthen good neighbourly relations, increase the competitiveness of member states, ensure their integration into the world economy, increase living standards and people's welfare and promote the accession of every member state to the WTO. "Increasing the effectiveness of the work of the Commonwealth will be the main task of the forthcoming stage in the development of the CIS. It will be necessary to attain a single understanding of the legal status and decisions of CIS agencies, to ensure that member states honour their commitments and to monitor their implementation," the document says. The CIS states will also be trying to bring their national laws closer and carry out basic international principles and standards in the sphere of democracy and human rights. The concept stresses that the CIS states keep to the values confirmed by the UN Charter.

The concept was signed by the leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine. It is important to point out that the head of the Azerbaijani delegation signed this document with a special opinion, which means that the Azerbaijan Republic accepts the provisions of this concept if they comply with its national legislation and international commitments. The special position of our country was also motivated by the fact that on the whole, Azerbaijan perceives the goals of international cooperation within the CIS in the format of interested states and does not support initiatives aimed at the economic and political integration of CIS states. The provisions and goals of the concept aimed at coordinating foreign policy and harmonizing the national laws of the CIS member states are not acceptable to the Azerbaijan Republic either. Representatives of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry stress that the fundamental aspect of Baku's approach to the problem of cooperation within the CIS is that in its opinion, the effectiveness of the work of this organization as a whole and the degree of Azerbaijan's involvement in integration processes and developments in the CIS in particular are directly linked to the readiness of the Commonwealth to take a fundamental position on the settlement of conflicts in CIS member states, first of all the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagornyy Karabakh conflict. In this regard, Baku thinks that an important condition for its development is the practical implementation of the provisions of the CIS Charter and assistance in the swift settlement of this conflict on the basis of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of Azerbaijan's borders.

As far as other parts of the concept on the further development of the CIS are concerned, the Azerbaijan Republic believes that cooperation in the sphere of security, the fight against crime, maintaining and strengthening international security and stability, countering new threats and challenges should also be supplemented by new measures in the fight against separatism - the main cause of armed conflicts.

A number of documents submitted for consideration at the CIS session were not supported and signed by Azerbaijan as they provide for a coordinated policy on this or that issue that falls only under Azerbaijan's jurisdiction or runs counter to its national legislation. Among these documents are proposals on a coordinated migration policy of CIS member states and the agreement between the CIS member states on countering the legalization (laundering) of criminal revenues and financing of terrorism.

The agreement on the establishment of a council of heads of migration services of CIS member states and the programme on cooperation in the fight against crime, illegal turnover of narcotic substances, terrorism and other violent manifestations of extremism for 2008-2010 were signed with a special opinion. In these programmes, Azerbaijan also rejected the provisions on the harmonization and unification of national legislation and reserved the right to take separate decisions on its participation in each of the measures envisaged by the programme.

Azerbaijan did not sign the agreement on cooperation between CIS member states on the fight against theft of cultural artifacts and on their return. This agreement was drawn up and submitted by Armenia. Baku explains the inexpediency of this document by the fact that quite an effective and internationally-recognized legal mechanism of tackling these issues has already taken shape within UNESCO. Moreover, in view of Armenia's policy of destroying Azerbaijan's occupied territories, which has already been discussed at the UN General Assembly, Azerbaijan had earlier suggested that the executive committee of the CIS request that another member state of the Commonwealth draw up a draft agreement on cooperation in this sphere. However, the executive committee ignored Baku's request, which proves once again that the leadership of the CIS has no principled position on the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. On the whole, during the Dushanbe summit Azerbaijan confirmed its position in favour of improving the activity of the CIS and increasing its effectiveness. Preferring bilateral cooperation between the CIS member states and stressing its interest in multilateral cooperation, mainly in the humanitarian sphere, Baku still considers CIS summits to be a unique chance for the leaders of the new independent states to exchange opinions on topical issues of the life of the Commonwealth, cooperation between its members and the international and regional situation. The meeting of the CIS leaders in Dushanbe decided its main task - almost all member countries (except for Georgia and Turkmenistan) signed the main document that will define the prospects for the development of the CIS in the next few years (some agreements were also signed by Azerbaijan with significant reservations). This made it possible to smooth out the contradictions between member states of the Commonwealth on fundamental issues of its development. However, the split within the CIS itself is continuing and the tendency of integration at different speeds is only increasing. This is proved by the fact that the leading member of the CIS - Russia - is placing more emphasis on cooperation in the format of "parallel" organizations - EurAsEC and the CSTO.

After the CIS summit, Dushanbe hosted a meeting of the leaders of EurAsEC member states - the presidents of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as well as the presidents of Moldova and Armenia - states that have observer status in this organization. The EurAsEC summit adopted a total of 17 documents aimed at developing this union. Among them is the document on the formation within EurAsEC of a customs union between Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia on the basis of the agreements reached in August 2006 and the protocol on the procedure of enforcing, joining and quitting international agreements that form the legal basis of the union. These documents were signed by the leaders of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. A draft concept on the effective use of water and energy resources of the Central Asian region was also signed. At the same time, on the initiative of Russian President Vladimir Putin a decision was made to involve independent experts in this issue.

Moreover, a draft concept on forming a common energy market of the EurAsEC member states was also adopted. Moscow plans to use it to increase its influence on Minsk and Astana's approaches to the problem of energy security and on the whole, to strengthen its positions in energy and political rivalry with the West in the CIS. The issue of the EurAsEC member states joining international conventions and agreements on transport and communications was also decided. A decision was made to grant observer status to the interstate aviation committee within EurAsEC.

The signing of all these documents created a legal basis for the customs union. The switch to this new integration stage is being carried out on the basis of the agreements reached in August 2006 on the establishment of a customs union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia within EurAsEC. It is planned that other member states of the Commonwealth will join this troika in the future.

It must be noted that EurAsEC is also being strengthened by means of expanding its international contacts. Now Moscow is trying to strengthen this tendency. The draft resolution of the UN General Assembly "Cooperation between the UN and EurAsEC" was also approved in Dushanbe. This issue will be examined during the 62nd session of the UN General Assembly. As for the further strengthening of the positions of EurAsEC in the international arena, it will continue in compliance with the concept of the community's international activities which was approved recently. On the whole, the Russian president assessed these projects as "a very important fundamental and new step in developing integration processes in the post-Soviet area".

The results of the most important of the three summits held in Dushanbe - the session of the CSTO collective security council, which includes Armenia, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, were significant as well. The session adopted 20 documents, first of all on the legal and organizational establishment within the CSTO of a mechanism of peacekeeping activities (Moscow has been trying to promote this idea since 2003), as well as on the establishment of a coordinating council of the heads of the agencies authorized to fight illegal migration and a coordinating council on emergencies, an agreement on the establishment of a mechanism of rendering military-technical assistance in the event of aggression, as well as a system of managing the forces and means of CSTO collective security. We would like to draw your attention to the latter. It is exactly in this sphere - military-technical assistance - where the most important specific results were achieved. The sides agreed and finally approved a list of all documents under which the CSTO member states will be given Russian weapons and special hardware not only for their armed forces, but also for their special services at domestic Russian prices.

According to the statute of peacekeeping forces that was adopted, the CSTO will be able to set up peacekeeping brigades with international status. Before the signing of this document, CSTO secretary-general Nikolay Bordyuzha explained that "any hot spot of the world might become a zone of peacekeeping activity". However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov did his best to deny that Moscow intends to use these forces to settle "frozen conflicts" in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. In any case, the Russian newspaper Kommersant said, it is much more important that within its zone of responsibility (Armenia, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) the bloc will be able to carry out operations absolutely independently, even without UN permission. Thus, the CSTO might turn into a powerful military-political organization that will ensure order in the post-Soviet area and the loyalty of the new independent states to Moscow. There is another document, adopted at the session of the CSTO collective security council, that draws our attention - the declaration of the heads of state of the CSTO member states in connection with the 15th anniversary of the signing of the treaty. The declaration says that its member countries will actively participate in "forming the modern architecture of international security" and in transforming it into a "multi-functional and effective security structure" that is also meant to promote "the strengthening of stability in countries neighbouring on the CSTO member states".

The declaration also touches on conflicts in the post-Soviet area, saying that "the conflict potential that has accumulated in the close vicinity of the CSTO zone of responsibility" might create "new dividing lines and restore the atmosphere of distrust and suspiciousness". The thesis that "ideas and plans to settle 'frozen conflict' by force beyond the format of the existing negotiating processes pose a certain danger" was quite unexpected (bearing in mind that some member countries of the organization are friendly with Azerbaijan) and unpleasant for Baku. Thus, Moscow which has always been displeased with the initiative of the GUAM countries on "frozen conflicts", enlisted support for its position from the six member states of the CSTO, which should be regarded as not quite a good outcome of the Dushanbe summit for Azerbaijan.

On the whole, we think that the summit was a remarkable event in the life of the CIS. Against the background of the current ineffectiveness of the CIS and its inability to solve problems of its members, which naturally weakens Russia's role in the post-Soviet area, the Kremlin is conducting a clearer policy of strengthening parallel "post-Soviet" organizations such as the CSTO and EurAsEC. The former is turning into a powerful military-political bloc led by Russia, while the latter is meant to ensure real economic integration between the three largest economies of the CIS. Moscow's policy of strengthening the CSTO and EurAsEC, as well as the appointment of Foreign Intelligence Service chief Sergey Lebedev, one of Vladimir Putin's closest associates, to the post of CIS executive secretary, only prove Russia's bid to end centrifugal tendencies in the post-Soviet area and restore its insecure positions in this region of strategic importance to Moscow.