BISHKEK, October 13. /TASS/. Russia's economic ties with its CIS partners are expanding, despite the threat of secondary sanctions from the West, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting of the Council of CIS Leaders.

"Despite the unprecedented sanction pressure of Western states, their threats to apply so-called secondary sanctions against those who continue to work in bilateral formats with Russia and Belarus, our economic ties and exchanges within the CIS are consistently expanding," he said.

Putin added that the CIS countries should expand interaction with the world majority states. "It is important to work together with like-minded people from other regions of the world - with the countries of the so-called world majority, the global South, whose views are very close to us," he said.

Speaking about the priorities of the Russian chairmanship in the CIS in 2024, Putin noted that Moscow "would propose to think about how to more effectively ensure the integration of integration processes in the CIS space, in particular to strengthen the Commonwealth’s contacts with the EAEU in the economic sphere and with the CSTO and SCO in the field of security." "Taking into account the fact that Russia will preside over BRICS in 2024, which has expanded and within which criteria and principles of cooperation with partner states are currently being developed, we will pursue a policy of strengthening interaction between the CIS member states and this association," he said.

In this context, Putin continued, the recent expansion of BRICS and the organization's willingness to work with all partners who share its fundamental values and ideals creates new opportunities. "Therefore, the Russian side, presiding over the association in 2024, will give priority attention to establishing cooperation between the CIS and BRICS countries," he said.