MOSCOW, November 12. /TASS/. An agreement on free trade in services within the CIS is planned to be prepared for signing by May 2022, CIS Executive Secretary Sergey Lebedev said on Friday at the meeting of the Prime Ministers Council held in the videoconference format.

"We anticipate the following procedure of preparing the agreement for signing: endorsement of the draft agreement text at the CIS Economic Council’s meeting in December 2021, the scheduled date is December 2; in March 2022 - endorsement of the list of commitments and approval of the whole package for signing at the next meeting of the CIS Economic Council; submission of the agreement for signing to Prime Ministers of CIS member-states in May 2022," the official said.

Extra amendments to the draft agreement may result in a change to the timing, Lebedev noted. "We look forward to being able to complete the decade-long joint work on the agreement under the presidency of the Republic of Kazakhstan," he added.

The text of the agreement implies that countries other than CIS member-states can join it "under certain conditions," Lebedev said.