The CIS Executive Secretary Sergei Lebedev has regretted the absence of the Ukrainian delegation at a session of the CIS Council of Heads of Government that took place in Dushanbe on June 1.
Lebedev told journalists after the session that prime ministers of six member nations of the CIS and vice-premiers of four member nations of the CIS participated at the of the CIS Council of Heads of Government in Dushanbe.
According to Lebedev, the CIS Executive Committee has not yet received any official notifications on withdrawal of Ukraine from the CIS.
He expressed hope that Ukraine will remain member nation of the CIS, “because it is in the interest of Ukraine itself.”
Recall, Ukraine has continued working within the framework of the Commonwealth of Independent States selectively since September 2015. Ukraine's representatives to the CIS left the office in the CIS Executive Committee building to return to the Ukrainian Embassy in Minsk. The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed on September 21, 2015 that the country will continue taking part in the CIS but on a selective basis.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko last month announced plans to quit the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and terminate parts of a friendship treaty with Russia.
In a statement delivered at security forum in Kyiv on April 12, Poroshenko noted on April 12 that Ukraine has never been a full member of the CIS. “I would ask that we, together with the government, produce a proposal regarding an official termination of our participation in the statutory organs of the CIS,” Ukrainian president said, according to Radio Liberty.
Established on December 8, 1991 after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional organization. It now consists of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine. Georgia pulled out of the organization in 2009.
