The potential for inter-regional cooperation of the subjects of the Russian Federation with Islamic countries is great, but has not yet been fully realized. This opinion was expressed on Thursday by Grigory Karasin, head of the Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs, speaking at a roundtable on inter-regional cooperation within the framework of the International Economic Summit "Russia - Islamic World: KazanSummit 2021," which takes place in Kazan on July 28-29.
"The potential of inter-regional cooperation is really great and far from being realized. Our partners in the Islamic world are aware of this. First of all, in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)," the senator said.
According to him, taking into account the fact that many Russian regions are border areas, special attention is paid to their relations with neighboring states. "At present Russia and OIC cooperate in such prospective spheres as trade and economic, scientific and technical, cultural and information cooperation. They are working together on the problems of settling a number of conflicts in the OIC area and fighting terrorism and extremism," Karasin noted.
In addition, there is a good practice of interfaith dialogue, joint work on human rights and protection of family values, the parliamentarian added. "Our countries cooperate on topical international issues, in particular on the Middle East settlement and the security of the Persian Gulf. Russia and the OIC demonstrate closeness of positions with regard to settling conflicts in Syria, Libya, Yemen, Iraq, Sudan, and Afghanistan, based on the fact that there is no alternative to political and diplomatic ways of resolving them and post-conflict reconstruction on the basis of a national dialogue with the participation of all parties involved," he stressed.
He reminded that the World Conference on Inter-cultural and Inter-religious Dialogue with the participation of heads of states, parliaments and heads of world religions will be held in St. Petersburg in May 2022 on the initiative of Valentina Matvienko, Chair of the Federation Council. "Undoubtedly, the problems of inter-regional cooperation can take one of the significant places during this conference", concluded the senator.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Based on materials from TASS