St. Petersburg, Oct.18 (Interfax) - The CIS prime ministers signed an agreement on a free trade area within the Commonwealth at a meeting in St. Petersburg on Tuesday.
The participants reached the decision to sign the document several hours before.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the document would lay a new foundation for trade and economic relations within the CIS.
"This is a fundamental agreement, which will serve as the basis of trade and economic relations between our countries," he said.
The participants in the session of the Council of the CIS prime ministers adopted another 28 documents, including an agreement on main principles of currency regulation and currency control in the CIS countries.
They also endorsed a decision on a concept of strategic development of railroad transport within the CIS in the period up to 2020.
They also signed an agreement on a unified system of registration of citizens of third countries and people without citizenship entering a CIS country and an agreement on the procedure for revising the level of secrecy of information classified during the Soviet era.
In addition, they agreed to allot funds for the creation and development of a CIS common air defense system in 2012.
