A session of the Council of CIS Heads of State has today held in Burabay town, Akmola Province, Kazakhstan.

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev attended the session.

President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev welcomed Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. A photo of the heads of state was taken.

Later, President Nursultan Nazarbayev welcomed the other heads of state who arrived in Kazakhstan to attend the session of the Council of CIS Heads of State.

A photo of the presidents was taken.

The event started with a session of the Council of CIS Heads of State in a limited format.

Welcoming the participants, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev congratulated the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko on his reelection, and congratulated the Kyrgyz Parliament on successful results of elections.

The head of Kazakhstani state noted that as the chair of the CIS his country tried to develop cooperation among the member states. The President of Kazakhstan noted that the organization was a good platform for discussion of issues of multilateral cooperation among the member states. Highlighting the agenda of the session, Nursultan Nazarbayev expressed confidence that the decisions the session has to adopt would stimulate further expansion of mutual relations.

President of Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev then addressed the session of the Council of CIS Heads of State in a limited format.

Speech by President Ilham Aliyev:

- I would like to point to two or three topics in my remarks. First, as it has already been mentioned, is the need to find new forms of economic interaction. The trade turnover among CIS countries has dropped. There is, of course, an objective factor in the form of certain processes occurring in the world. Many national currencies of CIS member-states have lost their power. Since we conduct our settlements in dollars, this, of course, takes a toll on the statistics with a minus sign. So I would also like to join the idea of Vladimir Putin on the elaboration of the issue of transition to settlements in national currencies. This will allow us the opportunity to avoid certain financial risks that are not related to our activities, strengthen our national currencies and further advance the cause of economic integration. A search for new forms of cooperation in the economic sphere, as well as new forms of strengthening the new economic model, especially in countries rich in natural resources, are, of course, on the agenda of our countries. I think that we can conduct more active consultations and exchange views and experience in order to minimize the risks that have arisen.

Also, I must say that among many countries, the CIS states, I mean those possessing natural resources such as oil and gas, show the best resilience to crisis among many oil and gas producing countries. Azerbaijan is actively involved in issues of transport security, and we invite all CIS countries to join the initiatives we put forward, including the joint initiatives with some member countries of the Commonwealth. In August of this year, we already received the first container train from China through Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan, which is a good sign that the East-West corridor begins to take a new shape. This corridor has more of a geopolitical importance and will, of course, provide an opportunity for closer integration of the countries located along the way and those close to this transport route. We are working hard on the North-South corridor project, above all, with the Russian Federation and Iran. We have already reached serious agreements and made concrete decisions to accelerate the connection of our railways. The project promises huge financial profits. This line is the most convenient and the shortest route linking the huge markets of China, India, Iran, Azerbaijan, Russia and Europe. I also wanted to inform you about this and invite our partner countries to join the project. It can be done in different ways – participation, investment, issues related to the provision of goods. I think we can work together in this direction. If there is a desire for investment, we would welcome that. If not, we can work together to mobilize possible new goods, so that this line becomes fully operational in the next couple of years.

And, of course, the third topic I would like to mention is the strengthening of security in the region. Some concerns have been voiced in the speeches today. We can all see and observe that. No country in the world can feel completely safe without all-round cooperation of the international community in the fight against terrorism. The CIS countries, at any rate most countries, have experienced international terrorism. It is a threat that bears immediate risks to countries of the region and potential risks to us all. Therefore, the fight against international terrorism should be a priority for all countries at this stage, and only by joining our efforts can we achieve this goal. Of course, it is necessary to work towards minimizing the risks, as well as identifying the causes that give rise to international terrorism. Of course, there are huge external causes, the funding of certain terrorist groups. But there are also an internal causes. The internal causes are poverty, illiteracy, backwardness, radicalism, fundamentalism and social injustice. If these objective reasons are not evident in a country, it will be very difficult for any external forces to create a nurturing ground for terrorism there. Therefore, joint efforts to resolve the issues of socioeconomic nature, issues of security and the fight against terrorism – all this forms the main agenda of our countries. We want to live in peace and harmony with the region, we want to develop and we want children to grow up literate, educated and healthy. For this, we need security. Therefore, Azerbaijan, for its part, will continue to make every effort to fight against international terrorism.

I think that the theses made here, the speeches of the heads of state are a good base for us to reexamine this issue from a more practical point of view and decide what more we need to do to secure our countries in the future.\

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The event then continued in an expanded format.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko presented "Order of Friendship of Peoples" to President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev for his contributions to friendship of peoples and states within the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

The next session of the Council of CIS Heads of State will be held in Kyrgyzstan on September 16, 2016.

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President Ilham Aliyev attended the working breakfast hosted by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev for the CIS heads of state.

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President Ilham Aliyev ended his working visit to Kazakhstan.