The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional intergovernmental organization in Eurasia. It was formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It covers an area of 20,368,759 km2 (7,864,422 sq mi) and has an estimated population of 239,796,010. The CIS encourages cooperation in economic, political, and military affairs and has certain powers relating to the coordination of trade, finance, lawmaking, and security, including cross-border crime prevention.
The Belovezha Accords is the agreement declaring that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) had effectively ceased to exist and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in its place as a successor entity. The documentation was signed at the state dacha near Viskuli in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, Belarus on 8 December 1991, by leaders of three of the four republics which had signed the 1922 Treaty on the Creation of the USSR:
The Economic Court of the Commonwealth of Independent States is a judicial organ which was formed in order to provide exercising of its economic commitments by the participating states. The Court is empowered to consider the disputes in the fulfillment of economic commitments in accordance with international treaties within the framework of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The Court considers other disputes under the agreement of the participating states. It is also empowered to interpret international treaties and the acts of the CIS bodies. The location of the Economic Court is the city of Minsk, Republic of Belarus.
The NATO Parliamentary Assembly serves as the consultative interparliamentary organisation for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Its current President is Michał Szczerba from Poland, elected in 2023. Its current Secretary General is Ruxandra Popa, who has been in this position since January 2020.
The Senate of Kazakhstan is the upper house of two chambers in Kazakhstan's legislature, known as the Parliament (Parlamenti). The Senate is composed of elected members: two from each region and two from three municipalities which are Almaty, Astana, and Shymkent.
The Community for Democracy and Rights of Nations, also commonly and colloquially known as the Commonwealth of Unrecognized States, rarely as CIS-2, is an international organization in Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus of three breakaway states in the territory of the former Soviet Union, all of which have limited to no recognition from the international community.
The Interstate Aviation Committee is an executive body of the Civil Aviation and Airspace Use Council of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and was formed in 1991 according to the Civil Aviation and Airspace Use Multilateral Agreement, signed on 25 December 1991.
The Alma-Ata Protocols were the founding declarations and principles of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus had agreed to the Belovezha Accords on 8 December 1991, declaring the Soviet Union dissolved and forming the CIS. On 21 December 1991, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan agreed to the Alma-Ata Protocols, formally establishing the CIS. The latter agreement included the original three Belavezha signatories, as well as eight additional former Soviet republics. Georgia was the only former republic that did not participate while Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia refused to do so as according to their governments, the Baltic states were illegally incorporated into the USSR in 1940.
Azer Kamal oglu Amiraslanov is the Head of the Department of Economy of the Office of Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
The EuroNest Parliamentary Assembly is the inter-parliamentary forum in which members of the European Parliament and the national parliaments of Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia participate and forge closer political and economic ties with the European Union. It was established in 2011 by the European Commission as a component of the Eastern Partnership. After the elections in Belarus in 2010 were declared as flawed by the OSCE, the membership of Belarus in Euronest was automatically suspended. Belarus is welcome to re-join the Assembly once political requirements have been fulfilled. In 2015, Azerbaijan's membership was suspended due to the European Union's criticism of human rights abuses by the government. In September 2016, it was announced that Azerbaijan would take the necessary steps towards restoring ties. As of 2017, the combined population of Euronest members stands at 61,927,521 people.
The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum is an annual Russian business event for the economic sector, which has been held in St. Petersburg since 1997, and under the auspices of the Russian President since 2006. Each year, more than 10,000 people from over 120 different countries take part. The Forum brings together the chief executives of major Russian and international companies, heads of state, political leaders, prime ministers, deputy prime ministers, departmental ministers, and governors.
The Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA) aims to promote peace in general, and in the Asian region in particular. It was established as the Association of Asian Parliaments for Peace (AAPP) in September 1999 by Sheikh Hasina, acquiring its current name in 2006 during the Seventh Session of the AAPP. The APA consisted, as of 2007, of 41 Member Parliaments and 17 observers. Each Member Parliament has a specific number of seats in the Assembly based on the size of their population. The number of total seats, and therefore, number of votes, is currently 206. Members of Assembly must be elected by members of the Member Parliaments. The APA Charter and Tehran Declaration lay out a framework of cooperation among Asian countries, and point out to a vision; that is Asian Integration.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM) is an international organization established in 2005 by the national parliaments of the countries of the Euro-Mediterranean region. It is the legal successor of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in the Mediterranean (CSCM), launched in the early 1990s.
The Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy, or I.A.O., is a transnational, inter-parliamentary institution that in 1994 was originally established as the European Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (EIAO).
The Council of Ministers of Defense of the CIS is a working body in the Commonwealth of Independent States responsible for military policy of the CIS. It coordinates military cooperation of the CIS member states, and develops military and defense policy of the CIS.
The Charter of the Commonwealth of Independent States, also known as the Statutes of the Commonwealth of Independent States, is an international agreement between the states forming the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
The Council of Heads of State of the CIS, abbreviated in the Russian language as the SGG (СГГ), is a working body in the Commonwealth of Independent States. It serves as the supreme body of the CIS, and includes all the chief of state of CIS member states. Regular meetings of the council are held annually. It was created following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, directly replacing the State Council of the Soviet Union. As of 2020 there are 9 members of the CIS: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Turkmenistan is an associate state of the CIS.
Relations between Ukraine and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) are multilateral international relations between a third state and a supranational organization.
The Agreement on the Establishment of a Free Trade Area is an international agreement on the intention to create a free trade regime in goods signed by 12 post-Soviet states on 15 April 1994, at a meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Council of Heads of State in Moscow and entered into force on December 30, 1994. Article 1 indicated that this was "the first stage of the creation of the Economic Union", but on 2 April 1999 the countries agreed to remove this phrase from the agreement. Article 17 also confirmed the intention to conclude a free trade agreement in services.
Eurasian economic integration is the process of economic integration of post-Soviet states which are geographically located in the center of the continent of Eurasia. Eurasian integration has been taking shape since 1991, originally via the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States in 1991, as noted in the World Trade Organization report. Currently, integration is primarily implemented through organizations that are open to accession by any post-Soviet countries, such as the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Eurasian Economic Union. An economic union means the deepest stage of economic integration.
