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In their remarks at the summit’s opening, President Vladimir Putin and First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who was taking part in his first such summit, spoke about the policy priorities for the CIS.

The summit’s agenda was devoted to current economic and political cooperation issues within the CIS, in particular the drafting of the CIS Economic Development Strategy, migration policy and modernisation of the CIS transport infrastructure.

In the area of humanitarian cooperation, the CIS leaders discussed preparations for the sixty-fifth anniversary of victory in World War II and how to make use of the possibilities offered by the intergovernmental Mir television and radio broadcasting company to help form a common information space between the CIS countries.

The Moscow summit was attended by all the CIS heads of state: President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliev, President of Armenia Robert Kocharian, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, President of Kyrgyzstan Kurmanbek Bakiev, President of Moldova Vladimir Voronin, President of Tajikistan Emomali Rakhmon, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko and President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov.

The Council of CIS Heads of State has held sixteen summits since January 2000, four of which, like the current summit, were informal.