President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Colleagues,
I am delighted to welcome all of you to Moscow for a regular meeting of the CIS Heads of State Council, which Russia is hosting as the current chair of the Commonwealth.
First, I would like to emphasise that cooperation within the CIS is one of the Russian Federation's top foreign policy priorities. The member states of the Commonwealth are our closest neighbours, friends, and strategic partners, and we are naturally committed to strengthening our cooperation across the board.
This is precisely what the concept of Russia's 2024 chairmanship and the relevant large-scale activity plan aim to achieve. We are grateful to all our colleagues present here for their support and active engagement in their implementation.
We have a packed agenda today. We will certainly pay considerable attention to economic matters and the prospects of the further development of trade and investment cooperation within the CIS.
I am confident that we have abundant possibilities for launching new major and mutually beneficial projects in industry, agriculture, finance and infrastructure.
We will also exchange views on a broad range of other current issues in the CIS, from ensuring our common security to cultural and humanitarian cooperation.
We will discuss concrete measures to expand our partnership in all these spheres.
Last but not least, we will talk about other ways to enhance the efficiency of the Commonwealth and its structures. We will also take a number of organisational decisions.
I hope we will work fruitfully and engage in a traditionally open and trust-based discussion on the current development aspects in the CIS regions and the world as a whole. We will certainly talk about this as well.
To be continued.