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MINSK, October 16 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with the president of Belarus Monday to discuss how the largest post-Soviet alliance could be made relevant again.
The Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose confederation of 12 ex-Soviet republics, has been criticized by some of its members - notably Ukraine and Georgia - as being ineffectual, and a vehicle for promoting Russia's interests. Moldova's leader has also questioned the organization's future, and last year Turkmenistan ceased to be a full member.
Talking to Alexander Lukashenko about prospective reforms to the alliance, Sergei Lavrov said, "We all want to approach [reforms] without unnecessary leaps, advancing consciously along a course set by CIS heads of state."
Lavrov and Lukashenko held discussions on the sidelines of a meeting of CIS foreign ministers, currently taking place in Belarus' capital, Minsk.
Addressing the gathering, the Belarusian leader called for efforts to prevent the 15-year-old body from breaking apart.
"We now have a huge market and rich resources, and most importantly, former Soviet republics are developing dynamically and actively, both in political and economic terms. So what is the point in destroying something that works?"
"We could all survive without the CIS, of course, but things would be much harder for us," the president added.
Lukashenko said the CIS' most important achievement is free trade, and that the bloc has been the main market for its member states, in the face of increasingly fierce global competition.
"As of now, total trade turnover between CIS countries has already reached $140 billion," he said, adding that Belarus' annual trade with the alliance amounted to $20 billion.
He also called on CIS members to tap into the alliance's high potential for goods transit. "According to estimates, the annual income from goods transit in the CIS could be raised to $15 billion."
The Belarusian president highlighted the CIS' role as an umbrella organization for expert councils managing specific areas of cooperation.
"We, as heads of state and government, may disagree at times, but experts have more success in resolving problems. This is especially true of law-enforcement agencies and special services," he said, adding that even Russia, the largest CIS member, cannot handle trans-border crime effectively without partners' help.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and seven of his CIS counterparts discussed ways to reform the organization at a Moscow summit in July. Four other leaders, notably Georgia's Mikheil Saakashvili and Ukraine's Viktor Yushchenko, did not attend.
The two leaders, who came to power on the back of 'color revolutions', have pledged to bring their countries out of Russia's sphere of influence, and are actively seeking NATO and eventually EU membership.
The chairman-in-office of the CIS, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, said at the summit that only 10 percent of the CIS' agreements had been implemented, and suggested specializing cooperation to areas such as transport, education, and the fight against terrorism and drugs trafficking.
