CIS celebrates its 25th anniversary in Bishkek

Kyrgyzstan's capital, Bishkek, is hosting the 25th anniversary summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) today.

The CIS Foreign Ministers Council held a meeting in a narrow format in the framework of the summit. Next on their agenda is an extended format where they will discuss such topics as  practical steps towards further development of cooperation between the CIS countries, as well as current international issues.

In addition, the foreign ministers will discuss a number of draft joint statements of the heads of states in connection with the 25th anniversary of the Commonwealth, the fight against international terrorism, the 70th anniversary of the end of the Nuremberg Trials and drug addiction and trafficking problems, RIA Novosti reports.

Later, Bishkek will host the meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of States, which will be attended by the Russian President Vladimir Putin. His assistant Yuri Ushakov said earlier that the President will talk about the concept of Russia's chairmanship in the CIS next year and the plan for its implementation.

"Among the main objectives of our presidency is further development of the CIS, strengthening of the international authority and influence, increasing the efficiency of the structures and bodies of the Commonwealth, facilitating different levels of the integration processes in the CIS space, the development of cooperation in the fight against terrorism and transnational organized crime," Putin's aide said.

In addition to the Russian president and his Kyrgyz counterpart Almazbek Atambayev, the summit will be attended by the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, the Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, the Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, the Kazak President Nursultan Nazarbayev and the Tajik President Emomali Rahmon.

The director of the EurAsEC Institute, Vladimir Lepekhin, stressed, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, that the CIS today, 25 years after its creation, is still a significant structure.

"First of all, the CIS is the oldest [after the breakup of the Soviet Union] integration structure. It has the right to exist for a simple reason that no one questions the necessity of its existence. It was the first defensive reaction of the leaders and elites of the former Soviet republics after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Several states did not want to maintain a dialogue, like the Baltic countries, but for all the other countries the CIS has become primarily a platform for communication between the leaders," he said.

The director of the EurAsEC Institute noted that, on the one hand, all the experts agree that the CIS, in fact, is a club of presidents, and although the meetings are noncommittal, they provide an opportunity to discuss common issues of the Eurasian space.

"I think that the creation of other integration structures concerned with specific issues - the Eurasian Economic Union (the economic integration), the CSTO (the military-political integration) - does not negate the CIS, on the contrary, it contributes to the development of the Commonwealth," the expert stressed.

He explained that there is an alternative globalization process in the world today, which is called trans-regional integration. "We are talking about the formation of major civilizations blocks, such as the United Europe or the Pacific Union. The Trans-Eurasian alliance is being formed at several levels at once, and with multiple cores. That is, it includes the SCO, the EEU and other structures. And the CIS allows to expand the dialogue within the framework of the Trans-Eurasian integration," Lepekhin noted.

Speaking about Russia's chairmanship in the CIS in 2017, the political expert said that he does not expect any drastic changes. "Now it is time to strengthen stability," he explained.

"Moreover, the presidency does not play a special role for such integration structure, which does not set any substantial tasks and is not binding," Vladimir Lepekhin added.