Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- An informal meeting of the heads of the CIS countries will be held on 26-27 December in St. Petersburg, RIA Novosti reports citing the chairman of the executive committee of the organization, Sergei Lebedev. The event is traditional and is held annually on the eve of the New Year.

Next week, an equally important meeting, informal, of the CIS heads of states will be held in St. Petersburg. At the invitation of the President of Russia, this meeting will take place on 26-27 December. “We hope that it will give an additional impetus to our cooperation,” Lebedev said.

The informal summit is expected to be attended by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedov.

This will be the second informal summit of CIS leaders in 2022. All in all, this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin held about 70 meetings and 220 telephone conversations with foreign leaders and heads of international organizations.

In early December, Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov said that the Russian leader had invited colleagues from the CIS to an informal meeting back in October. Then he stressed that the head of state would have other contacts by the end of the year, but this meeting would be the main event.