On October 14, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan participated in the session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the CIS member states in Minsk, the capital of Belarus.

During the event, which was held in a narrow and then expanded format, the Foreign Ministers of the CIS member states, in the context of further development of the structure, exchanged views on regional and international issues, discussed in detail political, trade and economic, cultural and humanitarian cooperation within the CIS.

The Foreign Ministers summarized the carried out work and the programs implemented since the establishment of the organization over the past thirty years, considered the prospects for the development of the CIS and the priority directions of its activities.

In reference of the further development of the organization, Minister Ararat Mirzoyan underlined the need to adhere to the principle of sovereignty, equality of peoples and the right to self-determination, inviolability of state borders, non-use of force and threat of use of force, and peaceful settlement of disputes, which are reflected in the CIS founding documents. The above-mentioned was emphasized in the context of the military aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan against Artsakh.

Highlighting the importance of implementing the provisions of the November 9 Trilateral Statement, particularly the immediate release of Armenian prisoners of war and others captured, as well as the need to preserve the Armenian cultural and religious heritage in the territories fallen under the control of the Azerbaijani armed forces, Minister Ararat Mirzoyan stressed that the comprehensive settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict under the mandate of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship will greatly contribute to the establishment of lasting peace in the South Caucasus.

With the results of the session of CIS Foreign Ministers Council, a number of statements were adopted, which the next day will be submitted to the CIS Council of Heads of State for approval. During the session the sides have agreed on the 2022 project on the multilevel consultations between the Foreign Ministries within the CIS, the statement of the Foreign Ministers of the CIS member states on the strengthening of the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological Weapons, the decision to establish a base of the CIS member states to study the issues of counterterrorism and other manifestations of extremism, and other documents.