MOSCOW, April 20. /TASS/. Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Secretary General Sergey Lebedev said that discussions among officials from the member states of the alliance of former Soviet republics were much more candid and heated than those typically occurring at G7 or G20 meetings.

"I wouldn’t describe them as disputes, but quite lively and heated debates do occur, and I have witnessed some. Talks within a limited circle of representatives, or between heads of state or government, are usually very candid," Lebedev said in an interview with TASS.

Unlike at G7 or G20 meetings, which the CIS chief said were full of perfunctory official pomp, "candid discussions, like within a family circle, take place here," at CIS gatherings.

According to Lebedev, the intense debate among CIS officials is targeted at producing positive results. "And these discussions always end up in some workable compromise or solutions that account for the interests of participating countries, which is what matters most," he concluded.