Sputnik Africa is live as the president of Russia, who chairs the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), will receive the leaders of the CIS countries who have gathered in the Kremlin for a meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the CIS.
Before the summit, the Russian leader held two bilateral meetings with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Both will be devoted to one topic - the normalization of relations between Baku and Yerevan, based on the 2020 trilateral agreements.
The leaders of CIS are expected to assess cooperation within the bloc in 2024 and identify the main goals for 2025. They will also talk about urgent regional and international matters and agree on the steps to improve the efficiency of the CIS, its executive and sectoral cooperation bodies.
Furthermore, they will discuss the 80th anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War, address enhancing inter-parliamentary collaboration and deliberate on security measures, including adopting documents related to law enforcement and deradicalization.
The meeting will be held in an extended format, followed by a closed-door event. The leaders will discuss Tajikistan's upcoming presidency of the bloc and schedule the next meeting, which is preliminary set to take place in the capital of Tajikistan on November 10, 2025.
The event will be attended by the presidents of Belarus, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, as well as the prime minister of Armenia.