MINSK, October 3. /TASS/. Cooperation between the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and BRICS member states is in its initial stage, though the plan is to give it a fresh impetus, CIS Secretary General Sergey Lebedev said.

"As far as BRICS is concerned, cooperation here is in its initial stage, though we intend to give this cooperation a fresh impetus," he said prior to the meeting of the Council of permanent authorized representatives of the CIS members in Minsk.

The CIS and BRICS nations currently cooperate mainly within the framework of their members in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Lebedev said. "In particular, they have held several economic events: an economic forum of CIS countries took place in March in Moscow where BRICS was represented, for example, representatives of India, the People’s Republic of China were present. This is within cooperation between the CIS and SCO, which is closer, of course. Heads of SCO, CIS and CSTO working entities met not long ago, on September 27, in Beijing. <…> All relevant issues of cooperation were discussed and continuation of cooperation was agreed on," he said, adding that "cooperation is quite active and efficient" between those three integrations.

"As Secretary General [of the CIS] I have invited SCO and CSTO Secretary Generals to the next meeting of the Council of [CIS] heads of states [scheduled for October 13] in Bishkek," Lebedev added.

The participants of the BRICS summit, which took place in Johannesburg on August 22-24, reached an agreement on Argentina, Egypt, Iran, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia becoming full members of the integration starting January 1, 2024. The list of new potential members of the integration is expected to be drafted for the next summit. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told a press conference devoted to the results of the summit that Moscow would prioritize the candidacies of Kazakhstan and Belarus at discussion of the next BRICS extension. Moscow will take over BRICS chairmanship in 2024.