Moscow hails Baku’s active CIS role, vows closer cooperation

Russia is interested in developing close cooperation with Azerbaijan across multiple regional formats, including the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), the Caspian Five, and the “3+3” regional cooperation platform, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on October 15.

Zakharova emphasised the importance of Azerbaijan’s engagement in shaping the Eurasian security architecture, Caliber.Az reports, referring to Russian media sources.

“We are interested in close cooperation with Azerbaijan in various regional formats: CIS and SCO, and the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, within the framework of the Caspian Five, the platform of regional cooperation ‘3+3’, including in the context of building the architecture of Eurasian security,” she said.

According to Zakharova, dialogue between Baku and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) is growing stronger, as reflected in Azerbaijani Prime Minister Ali Asadov’s participation as a guest of honour at meetings of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council — a tradition that has now become well-established. “The next such event was held in Minsk on September 30 this year,” she noted.

The Russian Foreign Ministry representative also praised Azerbaijan’s active role in the CIS. “We positively assess the interaction with Baku in the CIS format. The partners are very active in various areas of sectoral cooperation,” Zakharova said.

She pointed out that this year, Azerbaijan is hosting all three thematic capitals of the CIS — Gabala as the youth capital, Lachin as the cultural capital, and Ganja as the sports capital. “During this period, from September 28 to October 8, the Third CIS Games were successfully held in seven Azerbaijani cities with the participation of more than 1,500 athletes in 23 sports. We have already commented on this,” she added.

Zakharova further welcomed Azerbaijan’s accession to several key documents adopted at the CIS summit in Dushanbe on October 10. “We are talking, among other things, about the statements of the heads of state on cooperation in combating transnational crime and in connection with the 40th anniversary of the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant,” she said.

According to her, Azerbaijan also joined the adoption of the CIS cooperation program for countering terrorism and extremism for 2026–2028. “This is an important medium-term document on specific areas of joint work of the CIS countries to ensure regional security,” Zakharova concluded.

By Tamilla Hasanova