"Our unconditional priority is to further expand our multifaceted partnership with our closest neighbors in Eurasia. The Russian chairmanship of the CIS this year is focused on this task," Lavrov said during the government hour in the lower house of the parliament.
It is also important to enhance stability in the region while expanding cooperation, the minister said.
"Together with our allies, we are strengthening the potential of the CSTO [the Collective Security Treaty Organization] as a key regional defense structure responsible for ensuring the security of its member states and maintaining stability in Eurasia," Lavrov said.
There appeared a new task of "forming a new architecture of continental security" in Eurasia, the minister added.
The CIS is a regional cooperation organization created after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Its current members include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as well as Turkmenistan as an associate member, and Moldova, which suspended participation in meetings and moved to denounce the convention on the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly in July 2023. Russia assumed the chairmanship of the CIS on January 1 and said that it aims to increase its international status, strengthen ties between the CIS and a number of regional associations, and jointly counter external challenges.