BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

28/11/2006

CIS summit brings no progress on post-Soviet borders, reform

MINSK, November 28 (RIA Novosti) - CIS leaders signed various cooperation accords but failed to agree on delimiting borders between member states and outline the reform of the post-Soviet alliance at a summit Tuesday, the organization's executive secretary said.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, former member-republics moved to delineate their borders, turning administrative boundaries into national ones. By and large the process has run smoothly, but disputes between some members have persisted.

Speaking at a news conference in Belarus' capital, Minsk, after the summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States, which celebrates its 15th anniversary this year, Vladimir Rushailo said: "A decision was not made due to a lack of consensus."

Ukraine, where Western-leaning President Viktor Yushchenko seeks integration into Europe and its bodies, has long urged to finalize the borders with Russia. The two countries still have to demarcate the disputed border running through the Azov and Black Seas, and the Kerch Strait.

The Caspian Sea is a point of contention between Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, as well as Iran, which are trying to divide the sea's reserves.

Other border disputes within the union involve Georgia and two of its breakaway regions, as well as Azerbaijan and Armenia, and Moldova and the self-proclaimed republic of Transdnestr on its territory.

Russia-Georgia feud

The presidents of Russia and Georgia, locked in a simmering diplomatic feud, did not hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the summit, which Georgian diplomats had expected to take place.

Georgia's Mikheil Saakashvili had sought a separate meeting with Vladimir Putin in a bid to break the deadlock in relations, to bring an end to Russia's economic sanctions against the South Caucasus state, and to resume political dialogue.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said the Russian-Georgian dispute was not on the summit agenda, but was discussed by the leaders in a 'narrow format.'

CIS reform

The presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan have failed to outline measures to reform the organization, criticized by some of its members as ineffective and Russian-dominated.

The Kazakh leader said CIS foreign ministers would draft a reform plan for the organization by July.

"The session decided to instruct the Foreign Ministers' Council to draft and present a concept for the CIS reform by July 1," he said.

Kazakhstan advanced a concept for the reform in July, reportedly proposing limiting CIS responsibilities mainly to transport, migration, cross-border crime and humanitarian issues and suggesting major cost-cutting measures. Other members have proposed turning the bloc into a counseling body.

The countries have so far failed to come to terms on the issue.

Accords

In Minsk, the leaders signed a series of agreements in a bid to boost cooperation within the 12-nation alliance.

The presidents signed an agreement on fighting money laundering and financing terrorism, and a document on the protection of judges trying criminal cases.

The leader of Turkmenistan, which has reduced its involvement in the CIS, was not at the summit.

The presidents also signed a document on countering human trafficking in 2007-2010, a plan for censuses up to 2010, under a UN program aiming to improve socio-economic decision-making worldwide through more accurate demographic data, and other agreements.

An agreement regulating the CIS Anti-terrorism Center and related documents were amended.

Ineffectiveness

Nazarbayev criticized the way decisions adopted at CIS meetings had been implemented, saying issues on the agenda had been put off from one summit to another.

Discussions on the same issues "were postponed in Kazan, then in Moscow. Now in Minsk we are again postponing them until [the next summit in the Tajik capital] Dushanbe," Nazarbayev said.

The president of the Central Asian state said over 1,600 documents had been adopted by the CIS, but more than 70% of them had yet to be signed and implemented.

He also said CIS states' ambitions to join the World Trade Organization had complicated efforts to establish a free trade zone in the region, and the efforts might stall after their accession to the global trade body.

"If all CIS states join the WTO, there could be no discussion of the [regional] economic space," Nazarbayev said.

Five CIS members - Russia, Ukraine, Tajikistan, Kzakhstan, and Uzbekistan - are in talks with the trade organization, whereas Georgia and Moldova are WTO members already.

But Nazarbayev said the organization has huge potential: "We all believe integration within the CIS should be moved forward."

Source:

http://en.rian.ru/world/20061128/56131971.html