An informal meeting of the leaders of the CIS member countries took place on December 26 in St Petersburg, Russia.
The meeting was attended by President of Russia Vladimir Putin, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov, President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon, President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov, and President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
Before the informal summit, the leaders visited the Pavlovsk, Tsarskoye Selo, and Peterhof state museum reserves.
Opening the meeting, Vladimir Putin said that trade between the CIS countries had grown steadily this year. During the past 10 months, it grew by two percent compared to the same period a year ago and amounted to US$83.7 billion.
In June, an agreement on free trade in services and investment was signed between the CIS members, Putin said, adding that “We intend to continue to take action to harmonise the legal framework of the CIS and the Eurasian Economic Union”.
“We will continue to work with our CIS partners to be more active in switching to national currencies in mutual settlements. We are certain this will allow us to more reliably ensure the economic and financial sovereignty of our countries. Acting in a constructive manner, we will try to line up our efforts in order to maintain security and stability in our common Eurasian region, and to combat terrorism, extremism, cross-border crime, as well as drug trafficking and corruption,” the Russian president said.
Putin emphasized that cultural and humanitarian interaction is another critical area and an important component of the CIS partnership.
Putin pointed out that on the initiative of Kazakh President Tokayev, an agreement on establishing an international organisation for the Russian language was signed at the Bishkek summit of the CIS in October. Headquartered in Sochi (Russia), this entity is designed to support and promote the Russian language in the CIS and beyond. “The Russian language was the critical consolidating element in the post-Soviet space and the key to mutual understanding and free communication for hundreds of millions of people in the CIS countries,” the Russian president concluded.
