The Jubilee Summit Of The Commonwealth Of Independent States Will Be Held In Moscow

The jubilee meeting of the heads of state of the CIS member-countries will take place in Moscow on Friday. All the twelve Presidents of the Commonwealth states will gather in the Kremlin. The meeting will start in a narrow format and then will continue with the participation of the delegations. On the whole it will last for about two hours. Though this will be a jubilee summit, its agenda promises the meeting to be held in a working atmosphere. An important topic at it will be the procedure of organising and holding joint anti-terrorist operations in the territories of the CIS member-states. As the Russian Foreign Ministry explained, "this presupposes first of all joint actions within the framework of the Commonwealth's Anti-Terrorist Centre." The Centre, the ministry's official pointed out, was created long before the terrorist acts on September 11. However, "up to now it does not have a sufficiently legal basis." As is planned, the summit will result in the adoption of two documents - the Statement by the Heads of State of the CIS Member-Countries in connection with the tenth anniversary of the formation of the Commonwealth and the Joint Statement on the Situation Concerning Afghanistan. The statement on the Afghan theme will point out that each of the Commonwealth countries shall make its contribution to the anti-terrorist operation depending on its possibilities. The CIS countries are unanimous in the assessment of the operation's progress and prospects. In particular, they stand for settling the Afghan problem with the participation of the United Nations and taking into consideration the interests of the Afghan people. The statement will not arouse great differences, because the CIS countries have already coordinated their actions for participating in the anti-terrorist operation.