A limited format session of the Council of CIS Heads of State has today been held in Sochi, Russian Federation.

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev attended the session.

President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin welcomed Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

The Azerbaijani and Russian presidents posed together for photos.

Then a session of the Council of CIS Heads of State started.

President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin said that the agenda of the session is rich enough, adding that it will feature discussions on the ways of strengthening mutual relations within the CIS in the years to come, and on how to improve the efficiency of cooperation between the CIS countries.

The Russian President emphasized that the meeting will mainly focus on the development of relations in a number of areas, including in economic, trade, investment, and humanitarian spheres.

President Vladimir Putin underlined the existence of all opportunities for implementing new large-scale projects based on mutual interests and expressed his confidence that the meeting will give impetus to the expansion of exchange of experience in the field of culture, education, science and tourism.

In his remarks, Chairman of the Executive Committee and Executive Secretary of CIS Sergey Lebedev noted that the agenda of the meeting includes 16 issues. "The submitted draft documents have been examined by experts and coordinated with representatives of the countries. Economic documents have been approved by the CIS Economic Council."

President Ilham Aliyev made a speech at the event.

AZERTAC