Lavrov: CIS countries respond to coronavirus pandemic promptly

“The CIS as a whole is responding promptly to the changing reality, taking concerted steps to tackle the pandemic. The coordinating council for sanitary protection of territories from infectious diseases was set up some time ago, independently of the coronavirus, and works actively,” Sergey Lavrov said. He noted that the council held meetings in March, April and will conduct another one in May. The Russian foreign minister recalled that a working group to monitor the situation has been set up at the council.

“Today, we have agreed to continue working on improving these mechanisms and strengthening the regulatory framework of the CIS in prevention and control of infectious diseases. In this context, we have agreed to speed up the elaboration of the two draft agreements proposed by Rospotrebnadzor to step up cooperation in the sanitary protection of the CIS countries and on the prevention and response to emergency situations in the public health sector,” the minister said.

The participants of the CIS MinisterialCouncil meeting suggested holding a joint meeting with representatives of the World Health Organization (WHO) to share the best practices in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. “We have spoken in detail today about the role played by the UN system, its specialized agencies, including WHO, in the fight against the pandemic. It was suggested to hold a meeting with the participation of all CIS countries and relevant WHO agencies to analyze the experience gained in the fight against this threat,” Sergei Lavrov said.