Vladimir Putin, as President of a country with about 20 million Muslims, pays great attention to ensuring that Russia has good contacts with the Islamic world, Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov, who heads the Group of Strategic vision Russia – Islamic world, told "Tatarstan Today. Open to the world" program.
As part of the task of establishing cooperation with Muslim countries, as the head of the Republic recalled, Russia received the status of an observer country in the Organization of Islamic cooperation in 2005. Soon the Group of Strategic vision Russia – Islamic world was created, which at that time was headed by Yevgeny Primakov and Mintimer Shaimiev.
"Over time, President of the Russian Federation entrusted this task to me, and we are actively working in this direction under the leadership of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and personally Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov," Minnikhanov said.
According to him, the fact that 27 states are represented in the Group speaks to the representativeness of the organization. The members of the GSV are 33 highly respected experts, including former Prime Ministers, former Foreign Ministers, and a number of major theologians.
According to Rustam Minnikhanov, the Group has become a platform for initiatives that allows talking about the Russian experience, the Tatarstan experience and the world as a whole on the development of inter-ethnic and inter-confessional relations. This is a serious contribution to the universal treasury of humane interaction.
Rustam Minnikhanov has headed the Group in 2014. Its activities are designed to facilitate the process of further rapprochement between Russia and the Islamic world on major international issues, in expanding economic cooperation, and in promoting traditional values of Islam in order to counter radicalism.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: official website of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan