At a meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Council of Heads of State in Bishkek on October 13th, 2023, CIS Secretary General Sergey Lebedev announced that Tajikistan will take over the CIS presidency in 2025, Azernews reports.

The meeting, chaired by Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, was attended by the heads of state of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. It was one of the high-profile events held this week along with the sixth summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) and the Central Asia – Russia summit.

The Council of Heads of State discussed a wide range of issues related to multilateral cooperation within the CIS and agreed to intensify work on the draft agreement on free trade in services, organizations, and investment activities to deepen trade and economic cooperation.

They also declared 2023 as the Year of the Russian Language and the Language of Interethnic Communication, 2024 – the Year of the Volunteer Movement, 2025 – the Year of the 80th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War – the Year of Peace and Unity in the Fight against the Nazis, and 2026 – the Year of Health Protection.

The CIS heads of state also approved the program of cooperation in combating terrorism and extremism for 2023-2025 and agreed to hand over the chairmanship in the CIS to Kyrgyzstan in 2023 and co-chairmanship to Russia and Kazakhstan.

Tajikistan's assumption of the CIS presidency in 2025 is a significant development for the organization and will be a key step in strengthening multilateral cooperation among the member states.