original title:
Putin: Commonwealth of Independent States will cooperate despite differences
According to reports released on the Kremlin’s website, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Dec. 26 local time that although there are differences between member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States, they will continue to deepen cooperation.
At the informal meeting of leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States held the same day in St. Petersburg, Putin said that maintaining common security and stability in the Eurasian region is one of the key areas of cooperation between the Commonwealth of Independent States, and the challenges and the threats this industry faces are increasing day by day. While there will also be some differences between the CIS member states, it is important that the countries continue to cooperate. He stressed that even if the CIS countries face difficult problems, they will try to solve them together and help each other.
Putin said that the overall development of cooperation between Russia and the CIS countries in various fields in 2022 is going smoothly. Against the backdrop of unstable global markets, unfavorable world economic conditions and sanctions imposed by some countries, the volume of trade between Russia and the CIS countries has grown steadily and is expected to reach $100 billion by the end of this year. At the same time, the Commonwealth of Independent States began to move more actively towards local currency settlement and adopted a series of coordinated measures aimed at strengthening import substitution, ensuring technological sovereignty and independence, and expanding joint industrial production and scientific research . This is conducive to strengthening the economic and financial sovereignty of the CIS countries, promoting the vigorous development of goods, services and capital markets and further promoting regional integration.
On the same day, the informal meeting of the leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States was held in St. Petersburg, in which Putin participated with the leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The meeting will last until the 27th.
