The talks in a narrow format, where President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko spoke, were closed-door. Reporters were allowed only to take pictures of the speech of the head of Tajikistan. The press service of the Belarusian leader published the theses of Alexander Lukashenko’s speech. The President of Belarus called for unity and joint actions within the CIS against the backdrop of the destruction of the existing system of international trade. The Head of State stressed that the permanent priority of Belarus' membership in the CIS is strengthening economic cooperation. At the same time he noted that world market relations increasingly lose the signs of civilized interaction between countries. Together, the countries are able to successfully confront these new challenges: on the one hand, we must unite efforts to jointly protect interests in the global market, on the other, to intensify mutual trade and investment, expand industrial cooperation, and generally consolidate and enhance the role of the Commonwealth as a regional player.
More than once has the official Minsk emphasized that the Commonwealth itself needs an audit. The Belarusian leader attends each summit with specific proposals for improving the community.
The head of the Belarusian state proposed to instruct governments to update the economic part in the Concept for the Further Development of the CIS. It can become an ideological basis for a more complete use of research, production and investment potential within the Commonwealth. It is necessary to reasonably link this with the development of the Strategy for the Economic Development of the CIS for the period after 2020.
Among the proposals of the President of Belarus is synchronization of interaction in the CIS format with integration processes in Eurasia, especially within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Alexander Lukashenko is sure that a broad dialogue of the Commonwealth with the Eurasian Economic Union will also promote stable relations between the CIS countries.
A five-year inter-state program on the joint fight against crime and an agreement on cyber security were signed at the summit.
Following the summit results, 16 documents were signed, including the statement of the presidents on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 2021 is declared in the Commonwealth the year of architecture and construction, Dushanbe will become the cultural capital of the CIS in the same year. Alexander Lukashenko invited colleagues to visit the Second European Games in 2019.
During the summit, the President of Belarus held a number of bilateral meetings with foreign leaders. Alexander Lukashenko discussed with President of Moldova Igor Dodon the state of trade and economic cooperation, the implementation of previous agreements and promising areas for the development of cooperation.
Ashgabat will host the next CIS summit. Turkmenistan is the chairman of the association in 2019. Some of the leaders of the Commonwealth will meet several times before the end of the year: at the CSTO summit in Astana, and in the format of the Eurasian Economic Union in Moscow.
