ASHGABAT (Satrapia) — The next meeting of the CIS Economic Council will be held on 13 September in Ashgabat, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry has announced.

This issue was discussed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan at a meeting with the First Vice-President of the CIS Executive Committee, Viktor Guminsky. In addition, issues related to the preparation of the meetings of the Council of Foreign Ministers scheduled for 10 October 2019 and the CIS Council of Heads of State on 11 October 2019 were discussed.

This year, Turkmenistan is the president of the CIS.

The CIS Economic Council has been established in April 1999. Its main functions are: to develop proposals for the creation of a system of mutual settlements and payments for commercial and other transactions; to create legal, economic and organizational conditions for the transition to higher levels of economic cooperation based on the free movement of goods, services, labour and capital; and to facilitate the entry of CIS member States into the global economic system, says the CIS Spolcom website.

It should be noted that in 2005, Ashgabat, referring to Turkmenistan’s permanent neutral status, decided to participate in the CIS structure as an associate member. In 1999, Turkmenistan withdrew from the visa-free regime agreement with CIS countries.