With year-long formal procedures required for quitting Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) finalized, Georgia formally quit the organization on August 18.

President Saakashvili announced about Georgia’s intention to withdraw from CIS on August 12, 2008 saying Tbilisi had decided “to say farewell to the Soviet Union.”

The Georgian Foreign Ministry said that despite withdrawal from the organization Georgia still remained part of 75 multilateral agreements the participation in which is not conditional on CIS membership, including on visa-free movement and free trade between the organization member states.
 
“Georgia reaffirms its readiness to develop its bilateral relations with CIS member states on the basis of the principles of friendship and mutually beneficial cooperation, the universally recognized norms and principles of international law, respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity, inviolability of borders and non-interference in internal affairs of States,” the Georgian Foreign Ministry said.

Georgia was the latest country to decide joining CIS in December, 1993 and the first one to officially quit the organization in which 11 former Soviet states remain now.