SERGEY LAVROV: GEORGIA’S WITHDRAWAL FROM CIS WILL HAVE NO NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES
armradio.am
09.10.2008 15:22
Georgia’s withdrawal from the CIS will not harm the organization, the
Russian foreign minister said on Thursday, suggesting that Tbilisi’s
participation in the post-Soviet alliance had been malign in recent
years, RIA Novosti reported.
"Georgia’s membership of the Commonwealth of Independent States
(CIS) in the past few years has been aimed at the erosion of the
Commonwealth, rather than its consolidation, so I cannot see any
negative consequences for our organization," Sergei Lavrov said after
a CIS foreign ministers’ meeting in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan.
Georgia notified the CIS executive committee of its desire to quit
the organization on August 18, 2008. The move came after a five-day
war with Russia over the Georgian breakaway republic of South Ossetia.
Its withdrawal will come into effect next August.
The CIS currently comprises Russia, Georgia, Belarus, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Moldova, Tajikistan and
Uzbekistan. Ukraine is a founding and participating country but
technically not a member state.
Turkmenistan holds associate status.