Moldova's CIS Withdrawal Underway, Economic Agreements Under Review

MOSCOW, July 22. /TASS/. The process of Moldova's withdrawal from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is underway, and the parties now need to determine which of the organization's economic agreements Chisinau will remain part of, CIS Secretary General Sergey Lebedev told TASS.

"Representatives of the CIS Executive Committee and member states have already met several times. They discussed Moldova's notification of its withdrawal from the CIS. Our main task now is to determine which treaties and agreements Moldova will remain a party to and which it will leave. This work is already underway. Experts will decide which agreements and treaties Moldova will continue to participate in," Lebedev said.

He added that Moldova currently participates in 102 economic agreements within the CIS framework. "It wants to remain a party to some of them," the CIS secretary general noted.

Moldova's attitude toward the CIS began to change after Maia Sandu won the 2020 presidential election, declared a course toward European integration, and stopped attending CIS summits. Chisinau later officially decided to withdraw from the CIS's founding agreements, including the agreement establishing the organization, its charter, and the Alma-Ata Declaration, and notified the organization's Executive Committee. This launched a one-year withdrawal procedure.

At the same time, Chisinau has said it intends to remain a party to those CIS agreements and treaties that it considers beneficial. Moldova's opposition, including the country's largest opposition force, the Party of Socialists, has repeatedly criticized the government's decision to sever ties with the CIS, arguing that it runs counter to the interests of the country and its people.