Moscow to Host 3 Summits in One Day

Three regional blocs will hold their summits in Moscow simultaneously on December 19, the spokesman for the Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday.

The groups are the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Eurasian Economic Community and the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, Dmitry Peskov said.

The plans were decided during the meeting of Putin and his Belorussian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, which took place in Moscow on Saturday, Peskov said.

Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan are members of all three alliances, which also comprise between them several other republics of the former Soviet Union, including Armenia, Tajikistan and Kirgizia, as well as Ukraine and Moldavia as observers in the Eurasian Economic Community.

Russia has recently made a push to promote its Customs Union with Belarus and Kazakhstan, incepted this year, calling the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum at its recent summit in Vladivostok to strengthen ties with the group.

Bilateral trade between Russia and Belarus grew 20 percent year-on-year to $26 billion in the first half of 2012.

 

Leave a comment