DUSHANBE, September 3, 2011, Asia-Plus – The CIS presidents have gathered in Dushanbe to discuss further development of the post-Soviet association and urgent international problems.
Azerbaijan, Belarus and Uzbekistan are represented by their prime ministers at a summit, presided over by Tajik President Emomali Rahmon.
Speaking at an enlarged session, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said he did not see any alternative to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) as the structure uniting the post-Soviet republics. He stressed that Russia’s position on this subject would be invariable.
“We hardly may expect other parameters of the organization. But I am sure that over the years the integration degree within the CIS will be different,” Russian leader stated.
The meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of State is expected to consider eleven draft documents. The most significant of them are a joint statement by the CIS heads of state on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of founding of the Commonwealth of Independent State (CIS) and an analytical report on the results of the activity of the CIS over the past twenty years and perspective tasks.
The Dushanbe summit is also expected to consider a number of issues related to further expansion of humanitarian and security cooperation within the CIS area as well as draft agreements on perpetuation of the memory of the courage and heroism of the CIS people during World War II and on organizing activities of CIS air defense system in case of receiving information about aircraft hijacking and a draft program on cooperation in countering illegal migration designed for 2012-2014.
The CIS will celebrate its 20th anniversary in December. The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional organization whose participating countries are former Soviet Republics, formed during the breakup of the Soviet Union. It now consists of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine. Georgia pulled out of the organization in 2009.
