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Ukraine renounces term of rotating presidency in CIS

“Ukraine reserves its right to consider the reasonability of further participation in CIS activities,” spokesperson for Ukraine's Foreign Ministry Yevgen Perebyinis added

© ITAR-TASS/EPA/SERGEY KOZLOV

KIEV, March 19. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine has decided to discontinue its term of rotating presidency in the Commonwealth of Independent States, Yevgen Perebyinis, the chief of information policy department at the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

“Ukraine decided not to continue its presidency in the Commonwealth. Today, the corresponding note will be sent,” he said.

The diplomatic service’s representative specified that this decision was taken, since the member-countries do not fulfill the clauses of the agreement signed when the CIS was set up. “Ukraine reserves its right to consider the reasonability of further participation in CIS activities,” Perebyinis added.

March 14, the Ukrainian parliament registered a draft bill on denunciation of the agreement on creation of the CIS. The document was submitted by deputy of Batkivshchyna faction, ex-foreign minister Boris Tarasyuk. Earlier, acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Deshchytsia stated that Ukraine intended to quit CIS “due to the organization’s inability to serve as an instrument for solving conflicts between its members”.

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