Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- At a regular meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers held in Samarkand, the sports capitals of the Commonwealth for the next two years were determined, the press service of the CIS Executive Committee reports.

In 2023, Minsk will become the sports center of the CIS, and a year later, the city of Gyumri (Armenia) will receive the status of the Sports Capital of the Commonwealth.

At the last meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, held on 12 October in Astana, the Decision on the Interstate Program "Sports Capitals of the Commonwealth" was approved.

The appearance of the document is due to the increased need in the CIS countries to hold joint sports and sports events of various kinds. This was also facilitated by the successful implementation of the Games of the CIS countries, which were first held in 2021 in Kazan. The Games had a high resonance in the sports environment and gave impetus to the development of new sports initiatives.

According to the Regulations, the status of "Sports Capital of the Commonwealth" is assigned annually to one of the cities in turn in the states of the Commonwealth of Independent States. In the year of the Games of the CIS countries, this status will be assigned to the city hosting the competition.

The II Games of the CIS countries in 2023 will be hosted by Belarus, in this regard, Minsk received the status of "Sports Capital of the Commonwealth". In 2024, the Republic of Armenia will nominate the city of Gyumri based on the results of the national selection for obtaining the status.

It is expected that giving the status of the Sports Capital of the Commonwealth to the cities of the CIS member states will make it possible to clearly reveal their sports potential in the Commonwealth space, expand the opportunities for involving the population in physical culture and sports, attracting additional resource support, including for infrastructural improvement of cities.