NEXT CIS SUMMIT TO BE HELD IN MOLDOVA.

Ukraine "fully supports" the plan to hold the next CIS summit in Chisinau, according to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry’s CIS division chief, Stanislav Lazebnik, in a press statement yesterday. Last week CIS executive secretary Ivan Korotchenya had disclosed the plan, authorized by Russian president Boris Yeltsin, to hold the CIS summit in September or October in the Moldovan capital. Allegations followed in the Russian media that Ukraine opposed the idea. Kyiv’s statement now lays those assertions to rest. However, Moscow is scheduled to host as usual the meetings of the Council of Heads of Government and the Council of Foreign Ministers, which are always held a few days before the Council of the Heads of State. (Ukrainian and Russian agencies, July 29). For the last two years Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan have sought to end what they described as Russia’s self-arrogated "monopoly" on hosting and chairing CIS summits. The rotation principle was envisaged initially but never took effect in these and other major CIS bodies.

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