Russian President Dmitry Medvedev made a plea Thursday for closer cooperation among former Soviet states ahead of a regional summit overshadowed by the Georgia-Russia war and global financial turmoil.
Medvedev spoke after a ceremonial welcome beneath blazing sunshine in the Central Asian state of Kyrgyzstan, where the heads of nine members of the Commonwealth of Independent States were to hold talks Friday.
"Considering the crisis the international financial system is going through, it's necessary to take really effective measures to protect markets and ensure their future stability," Medvedev said, praising the example of European Union cooperation in the face of financial crisis.
"We need such coordination if we want to stay competitive and overcome the consequences of the financial crisis with minimal losses," he told journalists alongside the summit host, Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.
Along with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, who announced his country's withdrawal from the CIS on August 12, other absentees were Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, an ally of Georgia, and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, whose country's oil exports were disrupted by the war.
Commenting on Georgia's withdrawal from the CIS, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told AFP: "It's a loss for the Georgian people. That's clear to them."
The head of Russia's OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS), Alexei Miller, who signed a memorandum of intent on privatisation of Kyrgyzstan's gas sector, promised to help this mountain nation locate and develop gas resources of its own, saying: "This republic could independently meet its own gas needs."
But while the Kyrgyz and Russian leaders swore closer cooperation, the meeting came against a background of tensions, seen in a Kremlin briefing note that ticked off Kyrgyzstan for an "alarming rise in nationalist feeling" against Russia and its language.
During Friday's summit, activists were expected to demonstrate for the closure of a US-run air base that has riled Russia as it reflects Western inroads into Moscow's Soviet-era sphere of influence.
Attending the CIS summit, which was to kick off with an informal dinner on Thursday, were the presidents of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan as well as Bakiyev.