Rustam Minnikhanov meets President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov

On 21 February in the Kazan Kremlin the Rais (Head) of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov had a meeting with the President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov.

Welcoming his guest, Rustam Minnikhanov thanked him for his visit to the republic and for taking part in the opening ceremony of International Multi-sports Tournament “the Games of the Future”. “This is the first format in the world combining both physical sports and cyber-sport disciplines. And it is pleasant that it was invented by us in Russia,” he said and informed that more than 2 thousand athletes from more than 100 countries are taking part in the event.

The Rais of Tatarstan thanked for the honor to be awarded the Kyrgyz Dostuk Order, which was handed him in by the Ambassador of Kyrgyzstan in May 2022 during the International forum KazanSummit. “It is a great honor for me. I am sure we have a serious potential for joint work,” he said.

He expressed special gratitude for the decision to open the General Consulate of Kyrgyzstan in Kazan and added: “I think it is an important step in developing our relations and those processes that are going on between Tatarstan and Kyrgyzstan today. This will give a serious impetus to our cooperation within the framework of Russia-Kyrgyzstan relations.”

After giving his guest brief information about the region, Rustam Minnikhanov said that Tatarstan is ready to share the gained experience in developing business infrastructure, moreover as some projects of the republic are implemented in Uzbekistan.

He also reminded about the Actions Plan signed in 2021on implementation of inter-governmental agreement between Tatarstan and Kyrgyzstan and proposed to renew it.

“We have all opportunities to ramp up our work. We can see that economy of Kyrgyzstan is developing and we can cooperate in spheres of machine-building, pharmaceuticals, medicine and IT,” Rustam Minnikhanov said and informed that according to results of nine months of 2023 the trade turnover between Tatarstan and Kyrgyzstan made 99.5m US dollars. He added that there is also a potential for developing relations in such spheres as refinery and petrochemical industry, auto building, IT and medicine, as well as education as currently there are 400 students from the country studying at universities of the republic.

He also stated that representatives of Kyrgyzstan take part in an international forum “Russia-the Islamic World: KazanForum” and said:” We are also expecting your delegation to the Forum this year.”

In his turn Sadyr Japarov said that he is very pleased to take part in a ceremony of opening the Games of the Future by an invitation from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“It is my first visit to Kazan - the capital of brotherly Tatarstan. Before this I was here in 2011 as a member of Kyrgyz delegation. I am grateful for your warm welcome,” he said.

“We have a good opportunity to discuss issues of cooperation between Tatarstan and Kyrgyzstan. Turkic roots, common traditions and values and cultural and language similarity make a bond between us. Due to all these, relations between Tatarstan and Kyrgyzstan develop dynamically. We highly appreciate our fruitful interaction,” he said.

Speaking about General Consulate of Kyrgyzstan established in Kazan by his decree, Sadyr Japarov added: “Under difficult conditions of the modern world we must find points of mutual growth. I propose to give an errand to our government departments responsible for attracting investments and facilitating export to organize bilateral consultations in the nearest future. Economy of Kyrgyzstan need reliable economic partners”.

“In the last years the youth of our country shows the growth of interest in high quality education at Tatarstan universities,” the Kyrgyz President said and proposed to support an initiative of further increase of places for students from his country. He added that a branch of the Kazan Research Technological University continues its work in Kyrgyzstan and proposed to finish work in opening a branch of Kazan Federal University in the country.

In the end of the meeting, Rustam Minnikhanov handed in Sadyr Japarov the Duslyk Order – the award of Tatarstan.