Today, the Founder of Peace and National Unity – Leader of the Nation, President of the Republic of Tajikistan, His Excellency Emomali Rahmon attended and delivered speech at the regular meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of State, which was held at the Ala-Archa Governmental Residence in Bishkek.

The meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of State brought together the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, the President of Russia Vladimir Putin and the President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon.

The Prime Minister of Moldova Pavel Filip, Deputy Chairman of Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan, Byashimmurad Hojamamedov, Foreign Minister of Uzbekistan, Abdulaziz Kamilov, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Ukraine to Kyrgyzstan, Nikolai Doroshenko, took part at the meeting.

Heads of CIS Member State held talks in the narrow format to discuss the agenda of the CIS Council of Heads of member states, including the policy issues of security and stability in the Commonwealth, and humanitarian cooperation.

At the beginning of his address in a narrow format, the President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon once again expressed his deep condolences to the friendly people of Uzbekistan due to the untimely death of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov.

Then, the meeting continued its work in the expanded format. The meeting honored the memory of the late Uzbek President Islam Karimov observing a minute of silence.

In his address at the meeting in an expanded format, the President of the Republic of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon first expressed gratitude to the Kyrgyz side for the presidency in the Commonwealth and the organization of effective work of the jubilee meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of State.

The President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon, in particular, said that over the past quarter century, the CIS has left its mark on the socio-economic life of the Member States, retained the beneficial interstate cooperation in all priority areas of mutual interest to meet the requirements of the level.

The issues of adaptation of the Commonwealth to present-day realities, strengthening regional cooperation between the CIS member states in various spheres, security and stability, the fight against new threats and challenges were considered at the regular meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of State, and a special joint statement of the heads of delegations in connection with the 25th anniversary of the CIS was made.

It should be noted that at the meeting of the Heads of CIS, in the atmosphere of mutual understanding and taking into account the mutual intergovernmental interests, the positions on further implementation of the agenda issues were identified and their interest in the joint fight against new threats, including terrorism and extremism, as well as in ensuring security in Commonwealth territory, reducing the influence of external negative factors to the states’ economy were confirmed.

An exchange of views was held also on other topical issues.

The results of the meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of State was summed up with the press conference for a wide range of media representatives.

Russia has taken over the CIS presidency for 2017, and the co-chairmanship has been assumed by the Republic of Tajikistan.