Moldova has initiated proceedings to denounce three key agreements that underpin its membership in the Commonwealth of Independent States – the CIS Charter, the Agreement Establishing the CIS and the corresponding annex. Once this happens, Moldova will effectively cease to be a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Thus, this country will become the third country to leave the CIS since the establishment of this organization.
© Perevozkina Marina
We recall, the CIS was established in 1991 immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union at a time when the leaders of three countries – Russia, Belarus and Ukraine signed the Belovezhskaya Agreement. It was in Viskuli that the “Agreement on the Establishment of the Union of Sovereign States” was signed, which was later changed to the “Agreement on the Establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States”. This structure was created to coordinate the actions, mainly economic, of the closely integrated countries of the time. The Agreement is based on equality of participating parties and non-interference in each other's internal affairs, mutually beneficial interaction in the economic field.
The CIS was finally formalized as a legal structure after the Alma-Ata Declaration was signed on December 21, 1991, in a meeting attended by the heads of 11 former Soviet republics – Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine. Georgia was absent from the meeting; it joined the CIS in 1993. The declaration stipulates that the interaction of the participants in the organization “shall be carried out on the principle of equality through coordinating organizations, formed on a basis of equality and operating in a manner determined by agreements between participants in the Commonwealth, which is not a country or a state entity.” In 1993, the Commonwealth Charter was adopted, which determined the position of the CIS Executive Committee. As a result, Minsk was chosen as the headquarters of the Commonwealth. The organization's presidency is transferred annually to different member states in alphabetical order: in 2025 it will be Tajikistan and in 2026 it will be Turkmenistan.
The founding states of the CIS are those that have signed and ratified the CIS Charter. Of all the participants in the Alma-Ata meeting, only two countries did not do this – Turkmenistan and Ukraine, two countries that officially became members of the CIS, but are not members of the CIS. However, until 2018, Ukraine maintained participation in many Commonwealth bodies and participated in summits and various agreements within the CIS. In 2018, Ukraine officially ended its participation in the Commonwealth.
Even before that, Georgia left the CIS, joining the Commonwealth in December 1993, but after the 2008 armed conflict, Georgia initiated a break with the CIS effective 18 August 2009.
Over time, closer lineups began to appear in the CIS. The Customs Union, for example, initially included three countries – Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. This structure facilitates the movement of goods within the three countries' borders without customs barriers. This then led to the creation of EurAsEC (founded in 2000) and then EAEU (founded in 2014), of which simplified customs procedures are one of the components of the association. The main goal of the EAEU is to form a common market for goods, services, capital and labor resources. Currently, this Deeply Integrated Alliance includes five participating countries – Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia. At the same time, Armenia is now looking towards the EU and in this case, its departure from the EAEU is inevitable. At the same time, the countries observing the EAEU in 2025 are Uzbekistan, Iran, Cuba and… Moldova. But with its exit from the CIS, Moldova will most likely wave its hand to this association. Because President Maia Sandu has determined that the country's goal is to join the EU and, ideally, join Romania. Thus, Moldova intends to say goodbye to the post-Soviet space and all integration processes on this territory. And those who really care about this will remain in the EAEU and CIS. This means that work in these structures will go more smoothly.