DUSHANBE, October 10. /TASS/. The idea of establishing a new CIS Plus platform, which would include third countries under the auspices of the Commonwealth of Independent States, is very useful. Such a format would also allow all key regional organizations to participate in close collaboration, Russian Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov said in a commentary to the Rossiya-1 television channel.
"The idea itself is very useful," he said. "Depending on the agenda discussed at a given meeting, we can expect the participation of one or another state."
The Russian leader's aide did not specify which countries have already expressed their wish to join CIS Plus. The very idea of expanding the association, Ushakov emphasized, would mean that "all key regional organizations will cooperate more closely with each other."
Joint summits, he said, "are unlikely to be held."
"But representatives of various organizations will simply be able to attend meetings of the SCO, the CIS, and BRICS. That's the point," the Kremlin official explained.
Ushakov had previously stated that the leaders of the Commonwealth states would discuss this idea at the CIS summit in Dushanbe.