MOSCOW, December 24. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has left for St. Petersburg, where he will hold meetings with CIS heads of state and government in the coming days.
The multilateral program is expected to take place mainly on Wednesday and Thursday. On Tuesday, Putin is scheduled to meet with President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon.
The leaders are expected to discuss key areas of cooperation in the political, trade and economic, military-technical, cultural, and humanitarian spheres. Special attention will be paid to current regional issues, including the situation in Afghanistan.
As announced by the Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov, "acute problems in the field of migration will be discussed". The heads of state will also consider joint work in the CIS, where Russia will chair in 2024 and in 2025 this post will be transferred to Tajikistan.
Putin and Rakhmon last met at the summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Astana in November. They meet regularly, both one-on-one and in multilateral settings. In addition, the leaders have regular telephone conversations.
Russia is the leading trade partner of Tajikistan. In January-September of 2024, the volume of mutual trade increased by 10.1% over the same period last year to $1.08 bln. Russia is the second largest investor in Tajikistan's economy after China. Its volume is $1.6 bln. Russia supplies about 90% of the needs of the local economy for oil products. More than 36,000 students and postgraduates from Tajikistan study in Russian universities.
Programs for the following days
All CIS leaders will meet on December 25. An informal meeting before the New Year is a long-standing tradition of the Commonwealth. This year will be no exception.
According to the program, at the summit Putin will sum up the results of Russia's chairmanship of the CIS in 2024. After that, "the leaders will be able to communicate with each other in an informal setting and exchange views on current international issues," the Kremlin said.
The summit of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) will be held on December 26. Not only the direct participants of the Union, but also observers - Uzbekistan and Cuba (Cuba's participation is planned in the form of a video address by the president) have been invited to it. At the meeting the heads of state and government will discuss the functioning of the EAEU and the further deepening of its integration.
It is expected that a number of important documents will be signed, including the decision to grant Iran the status of an observer state in the Eurasian Economic Union.
The EAEU includes Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. They are also members of the CIS. Currently, the CIS consists of 11 countries: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Ukraine. At the same time, as Putin noted, de facto Moldova and Ukraine have long been nominal participants and are not involved in the work of the association.