Azerbaijan’s president unable to attend informal CIS summit in Russia

ISTANBUL

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev will not be able to attend an upcoming informal summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the country’s state media reported Monday.

Azerbaijan’s presidential administration told the state news agency Azertac that Aliyev will be unable to attend the informal CIS summit, scheduled for later Monday in the Russian city of St. Petersburg, due to his busy work schedule.

The administration also noted that Aliyev did not attend a meeting of Eurasian Economic Union leaders in St. Petersburg a day earlier, as Azerbaijan is not a member of the economic bloc, which was established in 2015.

It added that Azerbaijan regularly participates in official CIS summits and attaches great importance to cooperation within the regional intergovernmental organization.

On Sunday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state news agency RIA that Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to hold separate meetings with Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on the sidelines of the event.

The CIS was established in 1991 following the dissolution of the Soviet Union to promote cooperation in economic, political, and security affairs.

Its full members are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, while Turkmenistan holds associate membership. Moldova suspended its participation in CIS meetings in 2022.