ALMATY, April 11. /TASS/. A meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Council of Foreign Ministers, without delegations, has kicked off in Almaty, a TASS correspondent reported.

Before the meeting, Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Murat Nurtleu greeted the CIS foreign ministers with a handshake. The Russian delegation is being led by Russia’s top diplomat Sergey Lavrov.

The meeting will be followed by separate Russia-Central Asia talks between the foreign ministers.