Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that the trend towards joining forces is growing stronger in Central Asian region. The Russian leader named security, transport, and energy issues as priorities for Moscow’s interaction with the countries of the region.
“Unification trends in Central Asian region are gaining momentum. This was confirmed by the results of the regular consultative meeting of the leaders of the Central Asian states held on September 14 this year in Dushanbe. Against this background, Central Asia plus Russia format is becoming even more popular. It is obvious that our interaction, including in the transport and logistics, energy and humanitarian spheres, has outgrown the framework of bilateral cooperation and could benefit even more and be enriched from the combined efforts of all interested parties,” President Putin said in an interview with the Kazakhstanskaya Pravda newspaper published on the Kremlin website.
He pointed out that in addition to the dialogue at the highest level, ties have been established through Security Councils and other structures. As an example, the Russian President cited the mechanism of six-party contacts at the level of foreign ministers, which, according to his assessment, has been successfully developing since 2019.
“The next round of negotiations in this format took place on April 14 this year in Samarkand. There are plans to launch the work of “Central Asia plus Russia” expert groups on industry competencies,” he added.
“As for the priorities of our interaction in the “six”, at present these include increasing political dialogue, cooperation in the field of security, economics and trade, agriculture and food supplies, transport, energy, ecology, healthcare and sanitary and epidemiological well-being, humanitarian ties, migration, information technology and mass communications,” Putin stated.
Source : Akipress
