Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- A meeting of the Council of CIS Heads of States has started in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. At the opening of the forum, colleagues were greeted by the host of the summit, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, BelTA reported.

As you know, this year Kazakhstan chairs the CIS. “Today, important issues related to humanitarian partnership, security and other aspects of our cooperation are submitted for consideration by the Council of Heads of States,” the President of Kazakhstan said.

The floor was given to Sergey Lebedev, Chairman of the CIS Executive Committee, to inform about the draft agenda and rules of work.

This ended the part of the meeting open to the press. The leaders of the countries continued the conversation in a narrow format behind closed doors.

They are expected to exchange views on topical issues of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Some organizational issues will also be considered. Thus, at the summit it is planned to make a decision to transfer the chairmanship of the CIS in 2023 to Kyrgyzstan and to hold the next meeting of the Council of Heads of State in Bishkek.

Then, already in a wide format, the summit participants will also discuss a number of issues. As a result of the summit, a number of agreements are expected to be signed and decisions to be made on the development of cooperation in various fields, including the topic of combating corruption, terrorism and extremism, issues of the economy, humanitarian and cultural cooperation.