SCO to receive observer status in CIS

DUSHANBE. Oct 10 (Interfax) - The leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States members have adopted a decision to establish the CIS+ format and grant observer status in the CIS to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

The corresponding documents were signed following the CIS leaders' meeting in Dushanbe on Friday. Other documents adopted at the meeting include decisions on the concept of CIS member states' military cooperation through 2030, on the CIS secretary general (Sergei Lebedev has been reelected to this post), and the statement of the heads of the CIS states on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident. A total of 19 documents were adopted.

Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov has described the idea of creating such format as very useful.

"It means that all key regional organizations will cooperate more closely with one another. Joint summits are unlikely to take place, but representatives of these or those organizations will be able to attend meetings of the SCO, the CIS, BRICS. This is the point," Ushakov said in an interview with the Rossiya-1 (VGTRK) television channel. An excerpt from the interview has been published on the Vesti Telegram channel.

"Depending on what agenda is discussed at this or that meeting, one can expect this or that state to join in," he said.