Rustam Minnikhanov meets the Co-chairman of the Ibn Haldun University Trustees Council, the President of the World Ethnosport Confederation Necmeddin Bilal Erdoğan

On 8 November, speaking at his meeting in the Kazan Kremlin with the Co-chairman of the Ibn Haldun University Trustees Council, the President of the World Ethnosport Confederation Necmeddin Bilal Erdogan, who came on working visit to Kazan, Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov said that current contacts at all levels always give a good impetus for the development of cooperation aimed at strengthening bilateral relations between Russia and Turkey.

Rustam Minnikhanov expressed his gratitude to Bilal Erdoğan for having invited him to the opening ceremony of the Nomads Games which he visited in current September. The Games are an important factor of preservation of cultural identity of our brotherly people and were organized at a very high level, Rustam Minnikhanov said.

He also thanked Bilal Erdoğan for his participation in the Kazan Global Youth summit which was the key event of the international programme of “Kazan - the OIC Youth Capital 2022”. Minnikhanov said: ”It is a great possibility for us to strengthen interaction with Islamic countries, exchange opinions and demonstrate best practices in development social, economic and political activity of the youth” and reminded that the closing ceremony of the summit will be held in Kazan on 15 December.

He stated that this year was special and important for Muslims of our country as it celebrated the 1100th anniversary of adoption of Islam by the Volga Bulgaria.

“By the errand of Russian President Vladimir Putin I am the head of the Russia-Islamic World Strategic Vision Group, comprising authoritative and highly respected people from various Muslim countries. Two representatives of Turkey, namely the Member of the Parliament Aşar Aykysh and the member of the Turkish Presidency's Council of Security and Foreign Policies Ismail Safi are also members of this Group”, Rustam Minnikhanov informed and stressed that the republic attaches great attention to the development of Tatarstan-Turkey trade, economic and investments cooperation as it is aimed at strengthening relations between Russia and Turkey.

“Despite the current situation, 10 large Turkish plants continue working in Tatarstan and last year the trade turnover grew by 1.5 times compared to that in 2020,” Tatarstan President informed and added Turkish companies have invested about 2bn dollars into the republic.

Having named Turkish Companies, working in Tatarstan, such as Kastamonu Entegre, Hayat Kimya, Sisecam, Trak'ya Glass Rus and others, Rustam Minnikhanov said: “Today we have several projects which we are planning or started implementing and also large plans to ramp up our presence in the Turkish market”.

He also informed his guest about cooperation of Tatarstan and Turkish universities.

In his turn Bilal Erdoğan stressed that the Turkish delegation was happy to take part in the events dedicated to the 1100th anniversary of adoption of Islam by the Volga Bulgaria as those were very interesting and important events.

“As the President of the World Ethnosport Confederation I understand the importance of inter-ethnic and inter-state exchanges”, he said.

Bilal Erdoğan also told about the agreements in joint research and cooperation projects signed with universities from different countries of the world and informed about the Ibn Haldun University which has a broad range of university-partners all over the world.

”This university has been established with the aim of becoming a large academic center and establishing mutually beneficial contacts with universities in Turkey and other countries”, Bilal Erdoğan said.