The chief of the International Association of Prosecutors took part in the 31st Meeting of the Coordination Council of Prosecutors General of the Member States of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) held in Nursultan, Kazakhstan, on Sept. 23, to discuss ways to cooperate on issues like terrorism, drugs, corruption, environment and cybercrime.

The meeting was held offline for the second year due to the COVID-19 situation. All prosecutors general from the nine member countries attended in person. The regular CIS member states are: Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Moldova.

South Korea’s Cheol-Kyu Hwang, who is the president of the International Association of Prosecutors (IAP), delivered a keynote speech as the guest of honor. He said that if the collaboration system built in the CIS region is connected to the real-time global cooperation platform of IAP, the world‘s only international organization of prosecutors, a considerable synergy could be produced.

He also reiterated that the IAP Regional Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia is scheduled to be officially launched in late October in St. Petersburg, Russia, and it will strengthen cooperation between IAP and CIS prosecutors. During the meeting, Hwang discussed ways to strengthen cooperation between IAP and CIS through bilateral talks with prosecutors general from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan, and he also suggested ways to promote their exchanges with South Korea in responding to the Korean government’s New Northern Policy.

The meeting delivered a number of achievements such as sharing concerns over the increase in terrorist and drug crimes in neighboring CIS countries such as Tajikistan and Uzbekistan after the recent re-emergence of the Taliban in Afghanistan and creating a foundation for preemptive joint response.