The President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbaev, the President of Tajikistan, Emomali Rakhmonov, the President of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, and the President of Kyrgyzstan, Kurmanbek Bakiev, took part in the Council of heads of states of members of the Central Asian Cooperation Organisation (CACO).
Vladimir Putin thanked the participants for their decision to hold the Council's session in Russia.
As current Chairman of the CACO, the President of Tajikistan talked about the results of the organisation's work over the previous year. Significant work on developing the concept of the Central Asian common market, on stepping up regional economic cooperation, on creating a common hydroelectric consortium, and consolidating efforts in the struggle against AIDS took place. The CACO's experts also paid significant attention to coordinating their actions in creating a common list of terrorist organisations.
The heads of states then continued their talks in private.
The Presidents of Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan made press statements following the summit.
The CACO summit adopted a decision “On Continued Development of the Integration Processes in the Eurasian Area”. This decision provides for the CACO’s integration into the Eurasian Economic Community. A special working group will be set up for this objective. The President of Tajikistan will remain chairman of the CACO until the integration process is complete.
At the same time, Uzbekistan applied to join the Eurasian Economic Community.
The summit’s participants also spoke with President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, whose country is also a member of the Eurasian Economic Community, and Mr Lukashenko expressed his support for the decision to unite the two organisations.