国际英语新闻：CIS summit yields package of treaties

MOSCOW, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- Leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) concluded their summit here on Friday with numerous agreements signed, aiming at promoting the regional development and stability.

The agreements covered fields of military cooperation until 2015, common border policy, human and drug trafficking, terrorism and extremism fighting.

Leaders also agreed to sign a treaty, on setting up a free trade zone, opened for signature by the end of this year.

Starting on Friday, CIS rotating chairmanship has moved to Tajikistan with the food security a core issue of 2011, Interfax news agency reported.

After the summit, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev spoke highly of the CIS, saying that "there is no other place to coordinate our interests in the post-Soviet space but the CIS."

The CIS was created in December 1991, currently consisting of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine. Georgia quitted the organization after its conflict with Russia in 2008.

The next CIS summit is scheduled for September next year in Dushanbe.