CIS countries encouraged to step up cooperation to promote Russian language

Countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) should step up cooperation for the sake of supporting and promoting the Russian language, BelTA learned from Yelena Klishevich, member of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus.

During the first session of the eighth-convocation House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus the MPs passed the bill on ratifying the agreement on establishing an international organization for the Russian language. The bill was developed for the sake of completing the intrastate procedures needed to express Belarus’ consent to abide by the agreement on establishing the international organization for the Russian language as part of the efforts to fulfill decisions made by the CIS Heads of State Council on 13 October 2023.

Yelena Klishevich said: “Today we are talking about bolstering mutually beneficial cooperation between the CIS states for the sake of supporting and promoting the Russian language as a means of communication, interstate communication, and most importantly on the basis of friendship, good neighborliness, and accord.”

The agreement approves the charter of the international organization for the Russian language. The charter stipulates goals and tasks of this organization and also regulates how it will work.

“A ministerial conference will act as the supreme body. A governing board will be the executive body. And certainly, the organization will have a secretariat. The agreement has been signed by six heads of state. I think other states will accede to it as well,” the MP added.