Baku, May 3, AZERTAC

The Azerbaijan State News Agency (AZERTAC) hosted on Friday the 31st meeting of the Council of Heads of the CIS State News Agencies (CIS Information Council).

During the meeting, the heads of AZERTAC, TASS, BELTA, "Kabar" and "Khovar" agencies and their deputies explored the promising areas of cooperation during Russia’s presidency of the CIS, as well as issues of professional interaction in preparation for the 80th anniversary of the end of the World War II next year.

In his opening remarks, Vugar Aliyev, Chairman of the Board of Azerbaijan State News Agency (AZERTAC), noted that AZERTAC attaches essential importance to developing of cooperation with the information agencies of the CIS member states.

Deputy Secretary General of the CIS Denis Trefilov, on behalf of the Chairman of the CIS Executive Committee, expressed his gratitude to AZERTAC for the hospitality, as well as for the opportunity to gather in Baku, exchange ideas, and develop measures to cement friendship and cooperation between the countries. Noting the key role the state news agencies play in providing society and the citizens with up-to-date and reliable news, the Deputy Secretary General hailed the joint activity of news agencies as commendable.

Highlighting the issues of climate change and green energy, AZERTAC Chairman of Board Vugar Aliyev said: “Climate change, green energy transition, environmental protection, and renewables are subjects that are widely discussed these days. We observe the significant attention that global media is giving to these issues, with continuous discussions in the media about the best ways to report on them.”

Vugar Aliyev noted that the year 2024 was declared as the “Green World Solidarity Year” by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, adding Azerbaijan is implementing massive projects in this field with new hydroelectric power, solar and wind plants currently under construction.

“President Ilham Aliyev designated the liberated territories as a green energy zone, emphasizing that the primary focus for rebuilding these areas, which were completely destroyed and are now undergoing revival, will be on green energy,” said the AZERTAC Chairman of Board.

He also mentioned that Azerbaijan is set to host the 29th session of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP29) in November 2024. The Chairman of the Board emphasized that 198 countries are parties to the Convention, indicating the significant scale of this event.

“AZERTAC will be actively involved in covering the conference. We also invite our colleagues to jointly collaborate in terms of sharing reports which would be relevant and useful for the local audience in their countries. I am confident that with our joint efforts, we can share better reports with the people about the decisions the countries adopted regarding the climate change and the green energy transition,” Vugar Aliyev noted.

Touching upon the cooperation between the news agencies of the CIS member states, the AZERTAC Chairman of Board highlighted the strengthening of these connections. He noted that it facilitates the exchange of experiences and the execution of joint projects. In this context, Vugar Aliyev described the seminars organized by the TASS News Agency in Moscow, as well as the exchange program between TASS and AZERTAC as fruitful.

Chairman of the Board Vugar Aliyev invited his counterparts from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) to participate in the upcoming Shusha Global Media Forum scheduled for July 22. He emphasized that the first joint meeting of the Alliance of Turkic News Agencies (ATNA) is expected to be held within the forum.

“There is a large number of items on the agenda of the Information Council. We are gearing up for the 80th anniversary of the Second World War Victory, as well as the upcoming CIS Games to be held in Azerbaijan in 2025. Indeed, the Information Council is bringing together the agencies with the century-long histories. The BELTA Agency marked its 105th anniversary in December, while the TASS Agency will mark its 120th anniversary in September. The upcoming year will mark the AZERTAC’s jubilee and we will mark our 105th anniversary,” Vugar Aliyev noted.

Chairman of the Council of Heads of CIS State News Agencies, TASS Director General Andrei Kondrashov underscored that Russia’s presidency in the CIS is aimed at further strengthening the CIS as an integration association, increasing its international prestige, developing cooperation between the CIS and other international organizations, as well as all the stakeholders. He noted that another important goal is to deepen economic integration, including in the context of creating a common economic space, cooperation in energy, industrial and agro-industrial cooperation, digitalization, transport and communications, ecology and climate protection, scientific, technical and innovation cooperation.

“The priority is also the improvement of mechanisms for joint counteraction to traditional and new challenges and threats to the security of the CIS member states, strengthening cooperation in the military sector and border security. All of the above is of interest and relevance to all our states. We must take this into account and prioritize it in our information work,” Andrei Kondrashov added.

“An important area of our work remains the support of measures to combat falsification of history and attempts to rehabilitate Nazism, to preserve the historical truth about the Great Patriotic War. In this regard, we need to pay special attention to the preparation for the Year of the 80th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War in the CIS in 2025 - the Year of Peace and Unity in the Fight against Nazism,” he emphasized.

Director General of BELTA, Irina Akulovich, Kyrgyzstan National News Agency (Kabar) Director-General, Mederbek Shermetaliev, and Director of the Khovar News Agency of Tajikistan, Subhiddin Shamsiddinzoda, spoke of the preparations of the agencies to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the victory.

Speaking at the event, First Deputy Director General of the Russian news agency TASS, Mikhail Gusman, proposed to prepare a special publication dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Victory over fascism in the World War II, reflecting the contribution of each nation of the USSR to its victory.

The proposal of the First Deputy Director General of TASS agency was accepted by other members of the Information Council.

The participants decided to hold the 32nd meeting of the Council of Heads of the CIS State News Agencies (CIS Information Council) in Moscow on the platform of the BRICS Media Summit, which is scheduled to be held on September 11-15, 2024.

Chairman of the Council of Heads of CIS State News Agencies, TASS Director General Andrei Kondrashov, emphasized that as per the agreement with Xinhua, the initiator of the platform, the Russian agency will arrange the media summit for the first time within the Russia's BRICS chairmanship. He mentioned that over 100 heads of leading media organizations from more than 30 countries are expected to join the summit.

Andrei Kondrashov underlined that the next meeting of the Council of Heads of State News Agencies will be dedicated to the 120th anniversary of TASS.