English

Lukashenka attends informal CIS summit in Crimea

Alyaksandr Lukashenka, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and some other leaders of post-Soviet countries greeted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych on his birthday during an informal summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) held in Ukraine’s Black Sea resort of Yalta on July 10 and 11, BelaPAN reports.

The presidents of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine, as well as CIS Executive Secretary Sergei Lebedev, reportedly discussed “issues concerning economic and investment cooperation within the framework of the CIS and the prospects for the implementation of joint projects aimed at the development of the transport and tourism infrastructure.”

“We declare that ensuring higher living standards for people is the most important goal of the CIS in modern conditions, and believe that increasing economic cooperation is a priority of the Commonwealth,” said a statement adopted at the summit.

According to the Ukrainian president’s press office, particular attention was paid at the meeting to the liberalization of trade within the CIS. An agreement was reached “to continue active work on a new treaty on a free trade zone and consider this subject at the next meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of State.”