The presidents of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kyrgyzstan Sooronbai Jeenbekov, Moldova Igor Dodon, Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon, Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev participated in the informal meeting.
The leaders of the Commonwealth countries summed up the results of the Russian presidency over the CIS in 2017 and exchanged views on further development of cooperation in various fields.
«I am glad that we managed to gather on the eve of the New Year and, as we agreed, to sum up the results of joint work within the CIS over the past year in an informal atmosphere, talk about plans for the future and discuss topical issues of the regional and global agenda. Priority attention was paid to removing barriers to the movement of goods, services, simplification of customs procedures. I note that this year the trade turnover between the CIS countries has significantly increased,» Vladimir Putin explained.
According to data for 10 months, the trade turnover between the CIS countries increased by more than a quarter (25.7 percent), reaching almost $ 117 billion.
Since January 1, 2018, the chairmanship over the CIS passes to
