President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Colleagues, friends,
During the narrow-format meeting, that has just concluded, we had an open in-depth discussion of the topical issues related to cooperation within the Commonwealth of Independent States, as well as the regional and international agenda. Important decisions, which would define the development of the CIS both next year and in the future, were agreed.
The Commonwealth of Independent States is developing. All the leaders gathered here support further deepening of the Commonwealth. We can see that our joint efforts are consistently promoting the CIS’s authority as a regional integration association.
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The Commonwealth members act solely on the principles of mutual understanding, equality and neighbourliness, and successfully solve key tasks to improve our citizens’ well-being and quality of life.
It is largely through this that we have managed to preserve, and in some areas expand, the economic, social, cultural and humanitarian ties that have been developed over many years of living as part of a single state.
As it has been noted numerous times today, the entire span of the CIS shows positive dynamic in macroeconomic and, indeed, economic terms. The GDP of CIS members is growing at a good pace, as trade and investment ties between them are becoming stronger.
For instance, trade between Russia and other CIS states in just seven months of this year grew by an impressive 7.7 percent, totaling $63.2 billion, in spite of the volatility displayed by the global markets.
Companies from CIS countries carry out mutually beneficial projects in energy, industry, and infrastructure, jointly implement import substitution programmes, as a new, national currency-based financial system impervious to external factors is being established.
Obviously, cooperation between the CIS countries is not limited to the economy. Cooperation on the cultural track, which is based on the sinvere mutual interest of our countries’ peoples in each other’s culture and traditions, is making good headway.
We are all aware of the importance of preserving the memory of our common history and do a great deal for that. Next year will mark the 80th anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. In this regard, a joint Appeal to the Commonwealth nations and the world community will be adopted following the results of our meeting. Alexander Lukashenko will speak in detail on this issue.
We will also endorse a decision to establish the honorary title of the City of Labour Glory in the CIS countries, which will be awarded for collective contribution for continuous production of military and civilian products during the Great Patriotic War.
Speaker of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation Valentina Matviyenko will also address our meeting. She will talk about the work of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly and what this association is doing to strengthen integration cooperation, harmonise legislation, and improve the effectiveness of legal regulation in the member states.
Ensuring security and law enforcement is the most important area of the Commonwealth’s work. Close cooperation between competent authorities and specialised agencvies plays a key role there.
In this regard, I would like to note the programme of cooperation on deradicalisation, which we are to adopt today. It was developed at the initiative of President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev. It is aimed at preventing the legalisation of radical and extremist movements and at building interfaith dialogue.
In the current difficult global situation, it is crucial that all CIS states advocate the formation of a fair world order based on universally recognised principles of international law with the pivotal role of the UN. We constantly coordinate positions on key global and regional issues, and our approaches are traditionally close or completely coincide.
The CIS chairmanship will pass from Russia to our Tajik friends on January 1, 2025. Of course, we would like to wish President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon and all our colleagues in Tajikistan all the best. We will provide all the necessary assistance wherever we can.
Let me give the floor to President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko. Please.
President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko: Mr President, heads of delegations,
Thank you for this opportunity to present to our country the Address of the CIS heads of state on the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory in the Great Patriotic War.
Our country has received this right from history itself, the history of the Soviet republic that was the first to bear the brunt of the Wehrmacht’s attack and to stem its victorious march across Europe. We received this right from the heroes who fought to the bitter end in the Brest Fortress and near all the Belarusian cities, hindering the enemy’s advance towards Moscow.
People of 70 nationalities fought side by side with Belarusians, and every one of them knew that they were fighting against an absolute global evil. The memory of many of them has been immortalised in the names of streets and avenues in Belarusian cities, and in our monuments and memorials. Among them are Marshal of Victory Georgy Zhukov, heroes of the Soviet Union Rafiyev, an Azerbaijani, Avakyan, an Armenian, Iskaliyev, a Kazakh, Asanaliyev, a Kyrgyz, Azizov, a Tajik, Annayev, a Turkmen, Yakubov, an Uzbek, and many others.
We remember our heroes. But we also remember the pain, the grief, and the suffering of millions of our compatriots. The bell of Khatyn reminds us every 30 seconds that over 600 Belarusian villages were burned down together with their women, children and senior citizens.
Years go by, but we still hear the echo of the silent cry for help from the exhausted residents of besieged Leningrad, and the weeping of millions of Soviet mothers and children whose sons, daughters and fathers have not returned from the battlefield.
The number of deaths in that war is horrifying. But it is even more horrifying that this number continues to increase. We continue to find mass graves in Belarus with hundreds and thousands of bodies of those who had been tortured to death and executed. This work is also underway in Russia and other countries of the Commonwealth.
Meanwhile, SS veterans are being glorified in some countries of liberated Europe. Neo-Nazis openly march in the streets and tear down or vandalise monuments to the liberator soldiers. The young people who take part in these appalling doings have been raised in the spirit of national superiority and revanchism, and total ignorance of the true course of history. They do not know that their forefathers – the Balts, Poles, Belgians and even Germans – fought side by side with the Soviet people. They have been forced to forget that they exist today thanks to the Soviet soldiers who gave their lives for peace, for freedom of their countries and for the future of their people.
You can steal memory, but it is impossible to steal the truth. The heroism of the Soviet people has preserved the very countries and nations which are doing their utmost now to discredit the heroism of the Soviet people and appropriate the Great Victory that unites us. We understand why this is happening: our nations’ historical righteousness is obstructing the implementation of the West’s long-term geopolitical plans in which there is no place for other strong powers.
In response to these actions, the Constitution of Belarus has been augmented with provisions on the protection of historical truth and the memory of the heroism of the Soviet people during the Great Patriotic War. We have adopted laws precluding the rehabilitation of Nazism and on the genocide of the Belarusian people.
Thankfully, we stand united on the importance of safeguarding the heroism of our nations and our shared memory. We did this in the name of peace. And it is in the name of peace that we are adopting today’s Address. It fully aligns with the interests of not only our Commonwealth but humanity as a whole, which is closer to the brink of catastrophe than ever before.
I am confident that this significant political step will reflect a truthful assessment of our nations’ role in victory over Nazism, demonstrate respect for our shared historical past, and foster a constructive attitude towards our common future.
Thank you.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much.
I now give the floor to Valentina Matviyenko.
Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko: Mr President, heads of CIS member states,
I would like to begin by thanking you for the opportunity to take the floor during the Heads of State Council meeting, and of course for the attention you have consistently given to reinforcing inter-parliamentary cooperation between our countries.
Throughout its history, the Commonwealth of Independent States has offered a positive role model in promoting mutually respectful and constructive cooperation, in accordance with its core principles. This is primarily attributable to the leaders of CIS member states, but members of parliament are also expected to play a significant role in these processes.
For more than three decades, the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly has served as an effective platform for promoting dialogue among legislators, helping them exchange best practices and strengthening friendship and mutual understanding. We have been working together, shoulder to shoulder, as one big team of like-minded leaders, and have a diverse agenda filled with a plethora of important initiatives and cooperation frameworks.
There is no doubt that the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly’s experience and initiatives will effectively contribute to strengthening trust and mutual understanding between our nations, even in this new reality.
The CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly focuses on enabling member states to harmonise and bring their national legal frameworks closer together in order to create a common legal space. Model statutes and recommendations are being developed on an on-going basis.
As of today, the Assembly has adopted almost 700 documents to this effect, many of which were drafted in keeping with inter-state programmes and other CIS documents approved by the Commonwealth’s supreme statutory bodies.
In addition, the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly has drafted 28 international acts, with most of them serving as templates for conventions, agreements and strategies that were approved at the level of the CIS Heads of State Council and the Heads of Government Council.
Of course, model laws are not binding and do not restrict or interfere with the sovereignty of CIS countries. Nevertheless, these instruments are designed to promote harmony in the development of the CIS space.
Moreover, we can see that countries take on board the model acts drafted by the Assembly when shaping or fine-tuning their national laws. Case law also relies on model laws which serve as a benchmark when addressing various complex legal matters. For example, references to these documents can be found in the opinions issued by the constitutional courts in several CIS countries.
Election monitoring is an important mission for the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly. I can say that having independent observers involved in the electoral process serves a dual purpose. On the one hand, it ensures legitimacy when forming government bodies, while also cutting short any attempts by unfriendly countries to interfere in electoral processes by eliminating even the slightest opportunities for engaging in biased, lopsided speculation on this topic.
Since starting to work in this sphere 30 year ago, the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly’s observers have taken part in missions to observe the preparations for and the holding of over 100 presidential and parliamentary elections.
Hosting major international events has proven to be an effective way of promoting integration processes under the auspices of the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly. This includes the Nevsky International Ecological Congress, the Mining Forum, and counterterrorism conferences. The Eurasian Women’s Forum deserves special attention. We have recently held it for the fourth time, with the number of both participants and events at their all-time high. Representatives from 126 countries and 21 international organisations took part in the forum. We will continue to enhance the unifying potential of these formats.
Let me emphasise that young people have been proactively contributing to the integration processes. The Children of the Commonwealth International Cultural and Educational Forum has enjoyed positive momentum, with CIS countries taking turns hosting it. For more than a decade now, since 2012, the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly has had its own Youth Parliamentary Assembly for CIS member countries. It brings together young MPs and serves as a networking platform for learning the best legislative practices and, of course, promoting friendship.
That said, the Train of Memory project stands out as the most spectacular example of unity and friendship among our young people. While this project may be relatively new, it has become extremely popular. In fact, the figures speak for themselves: in just three years since its inception, the number of participating countries has quadrupled. This year, the train invited high-school students from all CIS countries for a ride, which means that young people from across the CIS took part in this project. They got a unique opportunity to undertake this historical voyage and to discover our shared past, the sacred feats accomplished by our ancestors, and of course to make new friends.
Thanks to this project we have learned that young people are eager to explore history. They want to know the truth about what happened during the war and are looking forward to visiting sites of military glory. Of course, we will make sure to support them in these sincere aspirations moving forward. Mr Lukashenko has already announced that the Heads of State Council has designated 2025 as the year of the 80th anniversary of Victory. This is of course a major anniversary, which will also dominate the agenda of the Train of Memory project. Next year, we want to invite young people from all former Soviet republics, all those with whom our fathers and grandfathers defeated Nazism, to take part in this project. I hope we will succeed in this effort. I would like to ask you, the heads of state, to support this initiative.
Once again, I would like to highlight that the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly has been going to great lengths to promote cultural, educational and scientific cooperation. It has offered its headquarters, the Tauride Palace in St Petersburg, for hosting all kinds of major international events, culture days, and various conferences devoted to major historical figures from across the Commonwealth, cultural and art figures.
The CIS designated 2023 as the Year of the Russian Language as a Language of International Communication. Organised by the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly, the conference titled The Russian Language as a Basis for Integration Dialogue in the Commonwealth of Independent States became one of the key events as part of this programme. We intend to hold this conference on a regular basis.
The Assembly has been just as proactive in its international activities. We have stepped up our efforts within the Inter-Parliamentary Union and have been working closely together with the parliamentary assemblies of Asian, African and Latin American countries. This year, we adopted regulations governing the status of observers within the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly. We have already received a number of applications from foreign parliaments wishing to become observers in our assembly.
I believe that other parliamentary associations can benefit from the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly’s positive record of accomplishments and experience. For example, this could be the case for the BRICS parliamentary dimension, which has received a major impetus for expanding its operations recently, when St Petersburg hosted the 10th BRICS Parliamentary Forum. We invited all parliaments represented in the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly to take part in this forum, and they were among the most active participants in this event.
Esteemed leaders of CIS states,
I would like to assure you that we will make every effort to ensure that the Assembly acts with maximum effectiveness and does its best to strengthen cooperation within the CIS. We hope that we will have your support in these endeavours.
Thank you for your attention.
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