Today, CIS is a stronger and more useful organization than it was 15 years ago, said Vladimir Churov, a member of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly, exclusively to Trend.
First of all, CIS became a real arena for discussing conflict situations. Secondly, the Organization has become a real arena for resolving different problems in the independent states such as migration, struggle against drug trafficking. It is a good place to discuss large-scale economic projects as well, for example, between Kazakhstan and Russia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, Russia and Ukraine, etc, he said.
According to him, the positive moments in CIS are the agreement between Russia and Kazakhstan on the development of the large-scale oil and gas field, advancing negotiations between Russia and Ukraine on the modernization of the gas transporting system which leads to the Western Europe, as well as the joint cooperation in the field of environment protection.
According to Mr. Churov, in summer 2007, Saint-Petersburg will host an intermediate non-formal meeting of leaders of CIS countries. An official meeting of the leaders of CIS member-states is expected to be held later.