Effective cooperation among the CIS member states in the healthcare sphere is aimed at uniting the efforts of the Commonwealth countries in preserving and strengthening the health of citizens. It rests upon a solid legal foundation comprising approximately 50 interstate agreements and decisions of the highest CIS bodies.
In recent years, this kind of interaction among the Commonwealth countries has significantly intensified. A number of new priority areas for joint and coordinated activity of national health authorities have also emerged, leading to a conceptual rethinking of certain key aspects in the organization and implementation of cooperation in this field. In 2025, the CIS Heads of Government Council approved a new version of the Concept of Cooperation among CIS Member States in the Field of Public Health Protection.
The practical implementation of interaction on these matters is carried out by the CIS Council for Cooperation in Health, which includes ministers and chief state sanitary physicians. The Council addresses the tasks set by the highest bodies of the Commonwealth and works to develop interstate interaction in its field.
Recognition of the particular significance of cooperation in the medical sphere within the Commonwealth’s activities was marked by the Decision of the CIS Heads of State Council declaring 2026 as the thematic Year of Health Protection.
During the Year of Health Protection, the Council and the states represented within it face the task of implementing approximately one hundred events under the thematic Plan and nearly the same number of events included in the Council’s Work Plan for 2026.
The chairmanship of this sectoral body by the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Uzbekistan, which has already responsibly begun addressing coordinating tasks, with the co-chairmanship of the Ministry of Health and Social Protection of the Population of the Republic of Tajikistan and the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Armenia, is expected to play an important role in the successful implementation of the outlined plans and the organization of work within the CIS Council for Cooperation in Health during this year, which is special for the sphere.
Read the full article via the link (in Russian).
For reference
The foundations of interaction in the healthcare sphere are defined in the Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Public Health Protection, signed by the heads of government of the CIS member states on June 26, 1992. The foundational documents also include the Agreement on the Provision of Medical Assistance to Citizens of the CIS Member States and the Protocol on its Implementation Mechanism, signed on March 27, 1997.