Islam Karimov attends informal CIS summit

During the visit, the Uzbek leader attended in the meeting of the heads of the states of the member-states of the CIS within the events, dedicated to the 70th anniversary of victory over fascism in the World War II. President of Russia Vladimir Putin, President of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbaev, President of Kyrgyzstan Almazbek Atambayev, President of Tajikistan Emomali Rakhmon, President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov, as well as chairperson of the CIS Executive Committee Sergei Lebedev attended the summit.

At the summit, the CIS leaders considered current agenda of the Commonwealth, schedule of upcoming events at high level, as well as exchanged opinion on regional and international issues.

In his speech, Islam Karimov said: "We will always remember unprecedented courage, heroism and perseverance of all those, who gave their lives on the battlefields, defending peace and freedom on earth".

Mr. Karimov said that Uzbekistan also contributed to the victory over fascism in the World War II. He said that 6.5 million people lived in Uzbekistan at that time, and 1.5 million of them went to the war. He said that about 500,000 Uzbek people died in the war and thousands were missing, many returned with injuries, it is not difficult to imagine what price had Uzbek people paid in this war.

He noted that Uzbek people also received over 1 million people, who were evacuated from war zones, including 200,000 children. He recalled that the Uzbek people shared their homes and bread with them.

President of Uzbekistan underlined that necessary lessons should be taken from this war.