MOSCOW, Aug. 26 (Xinhuanet) -- The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is not in danger of breaking up as an organization and remains relevant in economic cooperation, Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zurabishvili said Friday.

   "The current situation is not so to speak about a CIS breakup," Zurabishvili told reporters in Tbilisi, capital of Georgia, before departing for Russia for a CIS summit meeting, according to the Itar-Tass news agency.

   Zurabishvili was accompanying President Mikhail Saakashvili to attend the summit, set to open later in the day in the Volga River city of Kazan amid celebrations marking the 1,000th anniversary of the city.

   "As an organization, the CIS may not have a great significance, but it is playing a certain role in development of relations among the CIS states, primarily in economic cooperation," Zurabishvili said.

   The CIS enables the presidents, who share a common past and faces similar problems, to meet regularly, the foreign minister said.

   The CIS, a group linking 12 former Soviet republics, was set up in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. The three Baltic states are not CIS members.

   At the Kazan summit, CIS leaders are set to sign agreements on military cooperation and joint efforts in fighting terrorism and illegal migration.  Enditem