On December 10, 2010, the Russian capital hosted two high-level gatherings at the same time – the summits of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). The participating heads of state discussed the current state of economic integration as well as the future of their military cooperation aimed at strengthening collective defense capabilities after the June 2010 tumult in Kyrgyzstan.

One of the major outcomes of the CIS summit was the signing of a number of important documents, such as the Concept of a youth policy development strategy up to 2020, the Schedule of events for implementation of the concerted border policies, and the Joint Program of Action against terrorism, extremism, organized crime and drug trafficking. On the initiative of Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the year 2011 will be dedicated to the issue of food security in the CIS area.

Moreover, the CIS gathering yielded a long-awaited breakthrough in the economic chapter of the Commonwealth, which was indicated by the announcement by the Russian leader of the forthcoming creation of a free trade area. According to Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev, the final text of the agreement will become open for endorsement and further ratification in the last week of December 2010. This multilateral treaty is expected to replace a hundred existing arrangements concerning mutual trade among CIS Member States. The draft version of the free trade area agreement encompasses a string of WTO norms governing issues relating to the abolition of customs duties and quantitative trade restrictions, and also stipulates the freedom of transit, special safeguard measures, anti-dumping and compensatory mechanisms, subsidizing rules as well as sanitary provisions and arbitration procedures.

Medvedev positively commented on the contribution of the CIS to the restoration of economic relations severed by the collapse of the Soviet Union and its beneficial impact on the consolidation of inter-state trust and collaborative practices. He also deplored the withdrawal of Georgia from the CIS provisions, saying that “the Georgians cannot communicate with all countries at a time and some agreements are no longer valid for them”. It should be noted that Georgia officially renounced its CIS membership in August 2009, one year after its brief war with Russia. This withdrawal notwithstanding, Georgia continues to benefit from 75 multilateral instruments previously agreed to under the CIS auspices.

The CSTO summit reiterated the Organization’s adherence to the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states, confirmed by the parallel statements of the Presidents of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. President Nazarbayev reminded his counterparts that CSTO armed forces may intervene only upon official request from any of the member states, while President Karimov stressed the Organization’s orientation towards providing collective defense against whatever military threats emanating from third countries. To buttress his argument, he turned in the direction of the recent ethnic clashes in Southern Kyrgyzstan, where the intervention of CSTO troops, in Karimov’s words, “could have sparked a conflagration that would have been extremely complicated to contain”.

The heads of CSTO member states signed a few agreements governing the status of CSTO rapid response forces which were created in February 2009 to jointly counter any external threats capable of disrupting national or regional stability and peace. Belarus’ Alexander Lukashenko proposed, on behalf of his country which will be chairing the CSTO next year, to equip nascent CSTO forces with modern military capabilities and to organize regular military exercises to boost their field experience. The next round of joint exercises between Russia and Belarus will take place in 2011 on Russian territory. Lukashenko also suggested the creation of the CSTO Institute for Partnership intended to spread the Organization’s influence far beyond its territorial borders. “I believe that we have something to offer not only to our immediate neighbors, but also to countries from other continents”, Lukashenko said.

One day earlier, on December 9, 2010, the Kremlin opened its doors for another meeting of the heads of state of the Customs Union (CU) comprised of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. The three presidents signed another 17 legally binding instruments which are expected to finalize the creation of the Single Economic Space from January 1, 2012. During the signing ceremony, President Medvedev symbolically noted that on that very day 19 years before the agreement “On the cessation of the USSR as the subject of international law and geopolitical reality” had been adopted. Prior to the conclusion of trilateral talks, Russia agreed to exempt Belarus from the payment of customs duties for imported Russian oil, but Belarus, in its turn, would now transfer the whole bulk of its export duties for oil supplies going to third countries, directly to the Russian budget.