The traditional pre-New Year informal summit of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) leaders confirms the countries' intention to further develop cooperation, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday as he opened the summit meeting.
He expressed gratitude to the leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan for accepting the invitation and coming to St. Petersburg. "The fact that we have once again gathered in such a friendly circle, in my opinion, eloquently testifies to our desire to further jointly build cooperation in the CIS in the spirit of genuine strategic partnership, mutual benefit and taking into account the interests of all countries," Putin said.
He suggested summarizing the CIS performance in the outgoing year, talking about future plans and discussing issues of concern to all leaders on the regional and international agenda.
According to the Russian president, the multifaceted interaction of the association states was in general developing successfully. "This is confirmed by the steady growth in trade between us, as well as of Russia with all the CIS countries. Between January and October, it rose by 6.6% to $81.5 billion. And there are reasons to expect that it will reach $100 billion by the end of this year," Putin added.
He pointed out that this was happening against the backdrop of a difficult situation caused by volatility in global markets, unfavorable global economic conditions, as well as sanctions pressure from some countries. "CIS countries began to more actively switch to national currencies in mutual settlements. The CIS took coordinated measures aimed at import substitution and ensuring technological sovereignty, independence, increase of joint industrial production and scientific potential," Putin said.
The Russian head of state stressed that as a result, the economic and financial sovereignty of the CIS countries was strengthened, domestic markets for goods, services and money were dynamically developing and regional integration was deepening.
Vladimir Putin (President of the Russian Federation) - Another key direction of cooperation between the CIS countries is the maintenance of security and stability in our common Eurasian region.
Unfortunately, the challenges and threats in this area, primarily from the outside, only increase every year. Unfortunately, we have to admit that disagreements also arise between the CIS member states, but it is important that we are ready and will cooperate, and even if certain problematic issues arise, we strive to solve them together, jointly, showing each other friendly and mediation assistance.
