Rais of Tatarstan: We highly appreciate the opportunity to establish cooperation with Sierra-Leone

On 4 April, speaking at his meeting with the President of Sierra-Leone Julius Maada Bio on the sidelines of the 15th OIC Summit in Gambia, the Rais (Head) of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov said: “Relations of the Russian Federation with African countries have always been warm and developed constructively. We highly appreciate the opportunity of establishing cooperation between our republic and Sierra-Leone within the framework of Russia-Gambia relations. Unfortunately the level of trade-economic cooperation of Tatarstan with your country is currently low. At the same time our helicopters and trucks are well known in African markets.”

He attracted attention to the fact that Tatarstan is the northern most part of the Muslim world and has a close interaction with the OIC and its institutions. He also informed that since 2014 by an errand of Russian President he is the Chairman of the Strategic Vision Group “Russia-the Islamic World”. “We can also consider various spheres for cooperation with Sierra-Leone in this respect,” he said. 

In his turn the President of Sierra-Leone said that during preparations to this meeting he has heard a lot about Tatarstan. “We have always had close relations with Russia. Your country helped us at difficult times. That is why we support Russia in this difficult situation,” he emphasized. 

Julius Maada Bio proposed to develop active cooperation at the inter-regional level. “We consider cooperation in agriculture to be a promising sphere. It is very important for us to gain the experience and technologies in this branch,” he added.