30 Years of the Commonwealth of Independent States: Results and Prospects

A thematic exhibition "30 Years of the Commonwealth of Independent States: Results and Prospects" dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was opened in the Department of Official Documents Service (room 207) from December 2 to January 10.

The heads of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine set up the organization by signing the "Agreement on the Establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States" (the Belovezh Accords) on 7−8 December 1991 in the Viskuli residence (Bielawiezhskaja Pushcha).

Two weeks later, on 21 December 1991, in Almaty, the heads of eleven sovereign States signed the Protocol to this agreement, in which they stressed that the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, the Republic of Uzbekistan and Ukraine on equal terms form a Commonwealth of Independent States. The participants unanimously adopted the Alma-Ata Protocols (in Russian), which reaffirmed the commitment of the former Soviet republics to cooperate in various fields of foreign and domestic policy and proclaimed guarantees of the former USSR's international obligations. On 22 January 1993, the CIS Summit in Minsk adopted a CIS Charter (in Russian).

According to the CIS Charter, the objectives of the Commonwealth are the following: cooperation in the political, economic, ecological, humanitarian, cultural and other fields; comprehensive development of the member states within the common economic space, interstate cooperation and integration; ensuring human rights and freedoms; cooperation in ensuring international peace and security, achieving general and complete disarmament; mutual legal assistance and cooperation in other areas of legal relations; peaceful settlement of disputes and conflicts between states of the organization.

Today the CIS is a form of cooperation between independent states with equal rights, an internationally recogniяed regional interstate organization. Its distinctive features are the interaction in almost all spheres of inter-state communication and the flexibility of collective cooperation mechanisms and formats.

The international scientific-practical conference "30 Years of the Commonwealth of Independent States: Results, Prospects" was held in Minsk on 27–29 September 2021. More than 300 representatives of state bodies of the Commonwealth countries participated in the conference.

The conference participants adopted a Resolution (in Russian) in which they noted that under the complex conditions of today's dynamically changing world, the Commonwealth has fully preserved and in the long term will retain its relevance as an effective structure for multilateral interaction, strengthening mutually beneficial partnership in all areas of political, economic, humanitarian cooperation and in the field of security.

The exhibition presents more than 100 documents. Among them are books, brochures, periodicals.

The exhibition includes the following thematic sections:

• OSCE: the рistory of сreation, main goals and objectives
• Interparliamentary and political cooperation
• Economic and commercial cooperation
• Humanitarian and cultural cooperation
• Cooperation in combating crime and strengthening the security of CIS and the Republic of Belarus

The exhibition will be of interest to economists, political scientists, lawyers, historians, sociologists, heads and representatives of state bodies, employees of international, regional and non-governmental organizations, teachers of social, political and economic disciplines, students and postgraduate students.

Related links (in Russian)

• CIS Official Website
• CIS member States
• CIS bodies
• CIS sectoral cooperation bodies
• CIS Internet portal
• 25 years of CIS
• 30 years of CIS
• CIS Economic Court
• CIS Business Center for Economic Development
• CIS Interstate Council on Industrial Safety
• Interstate Statistical Committee of the CIS
• Council for Cooperation in Education of the CIS Member States
• Regional Commonwealth in the Field of Communications (in English)
• Council for Youth Affairs of the CIS Member States
• Information portal of interregional cross-border cooperation

Documents

• Statement by the Heads of States members of the Commonwealth of Independent States on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the CIS
• Agreement establishing the CIS
• Alma-Ata Protocols
• CIS Charter
• Declaration of the CIS Heads of State on the Further Development of Comprehensive Cooperation
• Concept of further development of the CIS
• The CIS development strategy until 2020
• Interstate Program of Innovative Cooperation of the CIS Member States for the Period up to 2020
• Unified register of legal acts of the CIS
• Information on ratification of CIS instruments

The opening hours of the exhibition correspond to the library’s opening hours.
Admission is by the library card or by the Social and Cultural Centre ticket.

For more info: (+375 17) 293 27 34.

Official Documents Service Department