Leaders of post-Soviet states to have four summits in December - newspaper

Leaders of post-Soviet countries will hold four summits in December. Summits of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) and the Customs Union (CU) will take place in Moscow on December 19, and the CIS summit is due in Ashgabat on December 5, Vedomosti said on Thursday.

"Leaders of post-Soviet countries will gather in Ashgabat on December 5 at the initiation of President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow of Turkmenistan (which is chairing the CIS this year)," the newspaper said.

Diplomats and sources at the Presidential Administration told the newspaper that the traditional informal CIS summit held in Moscow at the end of each year would not be held in 2012.

The reason is that the CIS official summit has been postponed from November to December by Russia's wish, the sources said.

A meeting held in Moscow two weeks after the summit would have been unnecessary, one of the sources said.

Hence, Moscow will host three instead of the regular four summits on December 19 - those of the CSTO, the EurAsEC and the CU, the newspaper said.

Presidents Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko chose the date at their September meeting in Sochi, Vedomosti said.

Judging by the preliminary agenda published on the CIS website, the leaders of 11 countries will discuss more than 20 issues.

Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's First CIS Department Mikhail Yevdokimov told Vedomosti about the most important of them.

He said the CIS summit would sign an agreement to organize an integrated currency market and to declare the validity of the free trade zone agreement for Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Armenia. Kazakhstan and Moldova would join the free trade zone on December 8-9.

The presidents will also make a decision on celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, he added.

According to CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha, the CSTO summit will discuss an enhancement of the organization's military component.

The EurAsEC summit will concentrate on further reforms, and the Customs Troika will step up integration, the newspaper said.

Meanwhile, a representative of the CIS Secretariat told Vedomosti that a decision concerning an informal summit in Moscow would be made after the Ashgabat meeting of leaders of post-Soviet countries.