The meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of State was held in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. All sides exchanged views on expanding and strengthening cooperation among CIS member states in the trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian fields. The CIS stands for Commonwealth of Independent States and was established in December 1991 and currently has nine full member states. Russia will take over the "baton" from KyrgyZstan and assume the rotating presidency of the. CIS in 13.