MOSCOW, 3 April (BelTA) – Uniting the potential of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will create a new center of the global economy, CIS Secretary General Sergei Lebedev said during the CIS International Economic Forum titled as 35 Years of CIS. Developing Greater Eurasian Partnership in Moscow on 3 April, BelTA has learned.
“Uniting the potential of the CIS and the SCO allows us to talk about creating a greater Eurasian space and forming a new center of the global economy, given that the SCO countries account for 65% of Eurasia’s territory and their population has reached 3.5 billion people,” Sergei Lebedev said.
According to him, the SCO and CIS complement each other, which can boost cooperation in energy, finance and transport across the Eurasian economic space.
The CIS secretary general also reported that the CIS is seeking new formats of interaction with external players to expand the integration framework. “Thirty-five years ago, forming the foundations of a common integration framework for the CIS seemed particularly important. Now we see the need to expand it and are looking for new formats of interaction,” he stated.
According to the secretary general, the CIS pays particular attention to improving the effectiveness of cooperation with other integration bodies, including the Union State of Belarus and Russia, the Eurasian Economic Union, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the SCO and BRICS. “The establishment of a new format for expanded interaction with third countries under the CIS Plus framework, together with the start of practical work on admitting CIS observers and CIS partners, have become the most significant achievements in political cooperation,” he added.
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