The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) will be preserved and live for many years, CIS Secretary-General Sergei Lebedev told TASS.
"I am deeply convinced that the CIS will be preserved for years to come. There are several reasons for that," he said.
"First, we are neighboring states," continued the secretary-general. - "And neighbors, who are destined to live side by side, are destined to close cooperation, because a state of war is unnatural in relations both between people and between states. Naturally, everyone prefers peace and good neighborliness."
Moreover, relations of peace and good neighborliness facilitate progressive economic development, Lebedev pointed out.
"And who will invest in the economy of unstable countries with no guarantee of the safety of these funds?" - he noted. - "So the fact that we are together, that we have century-old relations of friendship, good neighborliness, kinship ties that still exist - is a kind of guarantee that we will preserve our good neighborly relations."
"Another important argument in favor of the preservation of the CIS is the fact that over the 15 years in office I have never heard heads of state, heads of government, ministers of foreign affairs calling for the dissolution of the CIS, withdrawal from it, and so on," the secretary-general said.
According to him, all the meetings, discussions and conversations in any format within the CIS, on the contrary, "are aimed at preservation and development."
"Boosting the efficiency - yes, correcting drawbacks in our cooperation - yes, resolving problems we have - yes, but not the dissolution of the CIS, and I hope it will never happen," concluded Lebedev.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: Press Service of the CIS Executive Committee
Based on materials from TASS