On June 9, Moscow will host a meeting of the Group of Strategic Vision ‘Russia – Islamic World’ with the ambassadors of the member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. As Konstantin Shuvalov, Ambassador at Large of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Special Representative of the Minister for Interaction with Organizations of Muslim States, Deputy Chairman of the Group of Strategic Vision ‘Russia – Islamic World’, noted at the past online briefing, the meeting will summarize the results of the Group’s work over the past two years.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will be the guest of honor at the forthcoming meeting. The event will be chaired by Rustam Minnikhanov, Chairman of the Group of Strategic Vision ‘Russia – Islamic World’, President of the Republic of Tatarstan. It is planned that along with heads of diplomatic missions of Muslim states, the event will be attended by representatives of authorities, scholars and heads of Islamic religious associations. According to Shuvalov, the main purpose of the meeting is to inform the leaders of Muslim states through their ambassadors represented in Moscow about the existence of the Group of Strategic Vision, draw their attention to opportunities offered by cooperation with it, and tell them about the Group’s plans and the events to be held in the nearest future.
We would like to remind that the first such meeting was dedicated to the presentation of the Group and acquaintance with its goals and strategies.
‘Our meeting will be more of informational nature. We are planning to tell about out activities over these two years and how we have continued to actively engage with colleagues as much as possible during the pandemic, when international contacts were seriously affected and multilateral actions the Group is engaged in was hampered’, Shuvalov highlighted.
Konstantin Shuvalov noted that media representatives played an important role as an information resource. The Group of Strategic Vision is well aware of this and regularly organizes forums and subject matter events for journalists from countries of the Islamic world. Thanks to this, the organization has formed its own circle of friends who take an interest in the Group’s activities. In addition to active work with representatives of mass media, the Group has also its own website in three languages. According to Shuvalov, the task of the Group of Strategic Vision ‘Russia – Islamic World’ is to provide Muslim countries with first-hand information about the organization’s activities and the country as a whole.
Today, 33 representatives from 27 Muslim states are members of the Group of Strategic Vision ‘Russia – Islamic World’. As Konstantin Shuvalov noted, the Group is open to all countries, as well as to Russian subject actors in the field of relations with the states of the Islamic world.
Announcing the upcoming events, the speaker stressed that the Group of Strategic Vision ‘Russia – Islamic World’ was not an international organization. The Group of Strategic Vision is now a broad platform of various initiatives, mostly on a non-governmental basis, the main aim of which is to promote relations between the Russian Federation and Muslim countries and with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
One of the key events this year will also be the upcoming Russia – Africa Summit, in the organization and hosting of which the Group is also directly involved. As Shuvalov noted, representatives of the Group were participants of the very first summit, and last year there was an online conference dedicated to African issues. ‘We are interested in having more representatives from Muslim countries in Africa. There are some of them, but it is not enough. We hope to arouse interest through such meetings and events, to talk about the Group’s activities and those opportunities it offers to potential African partners’, Deputy Chairman of the Group of Strategic Vision ‘Russia – Islamic World’ added.
Also in July, the traditional forum of the XII International Economic Summit ‘Russia – Islamic World: KazanSummit 2021’ will take place. ‘This project has a long and successful history. Originally, the summit was a purely regional initiative of the Republic of Tatarstan, but over some time it expanded its scope and fully lived up to its name. There are more representatives of Muslim states among the participants’, Shuvalov assured during the briefing. According to him, KazanSummit is a respected and significant event.
‘In 2022, we are taking part in the World Conference on Inter-Religious and Inter-Ethnic Dialogue. Extensive preparatory work is already being carried out and the organizing committee is in place, with the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation playing the main role. This forum has respected co-organizers and partners: the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the United Nations and its Alliance of Civilizations. The forum will be of representative nature, with the participation of state leaders and governmental officials. We hope that we will also fit into this broad agenda dedicated to topics that have a direct overlap with our activities’, the speaker added.
Special attention within the framework of the briefing was drawn to the interaction between the Group of Strategic Vision ‘Russia – Islamic World’ and the regions of Russia, where Muslims are concentrated. According to Shuvalov, Muslim-majority subjects of the Russian Federation are especially interested in establishing, in part restoring, long-forgotten traditional ties with Muslim states. ‘Everything depends on a region’s own unequal opportunities, primarily in economic terms, as well as on cultural and religious peculiarities. We must remember that our Muslims belong mainly to two madhabs, the Hanafi and Shafi. Accordingly, the convergence of the madhabs gives a color to such interaction’, Konstantin Shuvalov concluded.
Tatarstan plays a special role in the interaction between Russia and the Muslim world. As the Deputy Chairman of the Group noted, the Republic was the first to embark on this path and has travelled quite a distance along it in terms of establishing close ties in different areas. ‘Our regions support such types of religious contacts as participation of Russian Muslims in the Hajj. Separately it is worth saying about Islamic youth receiving religious education abroad. Much is being done to ensure that all education at primary level takes place in Russia, and the process of revival of Russian theological schools is being carried out. For instance, in Tatarstan, in Bolgar, there is the Bolgarian Islamic Academy, which has been widely supported and has excellent infrastructure. Our Group also supports the Academy in its endeavors and holds events inviting foreign authorities in the field of theology’, Shuvalov told.
Concluding the briefing, Shuvalov reminded about the call for papers for the Yevgeny Primakov and the Group’d Chairman, President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov Awards. More information can be found on the website in the Projects section.
Ilmira Gafiyatullina