ArmInfo. RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan took part in the informal meeting of CIS leaders in St. Petersburg, the press service o the Head of Armenian Government reports. President of Russia Vladimir Putin, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon, President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedow, President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev also took part in the event.
The Russian President thanked the leaders of the CIS countries for visiting St. Petersburg and noted that during today's informal meeting there will be an opportunity to discuss the issues and topics on the agenda of the CIS summit to take place in Astana next week.
It should be noted that at an informal meeting of the leaders of the CIS countries, Vladimir Putin stated that Russia's trade with the CIS countries in 2021 increased by more than 30%, amounting to $96 billion, and in the first half of 2022 - by another 7%. The head of Russia considered it necessary to strengthen industrial cooperation in trade between states, as well as technical sovereignty through their own developments. "The development of positive trends in trade between states will allow a more energetic transition to national currencies in settlements between the CIS countries," he added. In general, according to President Putin, this will help strengthen the financial sovereignty of states, develop domestic capital markets, and deepen regional economic integration.
According to the RA statistical data, the foreign trade turnover between Armenia and Russia exceeded $2.6 billion in January-August 2022 with a sharp acceleration in annual growth from 11.8% to 71.7%, mainly due to a significant jump in exports.