CIS marks 16th anniversary

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) marks its 16th anniversary on December 21.



Initiating the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the autumn of 1991, the leaders of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine met on December 8 in the Belovezhskaya Pushcha Natural Reserve, about 50 km north of Brest in Belarus, and signed an agreement establishing the CIS. At the same time they announced that the new alliance would be open to all republics of the former Soviet Union, as well as other nations sharing the same goals.



On December 21, 1991, the leaders of eleven of the fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union met in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, and signed the charter, thus de facto ratifying the initial CIS treaty. The Soviet government had already recognized the independence of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania on September 6, 1991, and the three Baltic nations refused to join the CIS. Georgia and Azerbaijan were initially reluctant to join the CIS but eventually did so. The CIS charter stated that all the members were sovereign and independent nations and thereby effectively abolished the Soviet Union.



The ten original member states were Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Azerbaijan joined the CIS in September 1993 and Georgia joined in December.

Presently, over 60 coordinating and consultative bodies function within the CIS, the major being the Council of Heads of State, Council of Heads of Government, Council of Foreign Ministers, Council of Defense Ministers, Economic Court, Interparliamentary Assembly, etc.



Organizations like the EurAsEC, CSTO, GUAM also function within the Commonwealth.