The meeting was held on the sidelines of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council meeting.
Mikhail Mishustin with Prime Minister of the Kyrgyz Republic Ulukbek Maripov
Excerpts from the transcript:
Mikhail Mishustin: Greetings, Mr Maripov.
I welcome you to Kazan, to the Russian Federation, here at the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council meeting. First of all, I would like you to convey my warmest wishes and kind words to President of the Kyrgyz Republic Sadyr Japarov on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin and myself. I also congratulate you on the successful 11 April referendum on the new constitution.
Russia and Kyrgyzstan are strategic partners and allies. Our years-long relations are rooted in friendship, neighbourliness, and I would say, brotherhood. We are sincerely interested in promoting cooperation. Russia is among Kyrgyzstan’s major partners. Regretfully, the coronavirus pandemic has affected our trade. Trade did declined, but not too much in 2020, about 10 percent.
Visit
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Restricted-attendance meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council
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Mikhail Mishustin’s conversation with Acting Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan
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Mikhail Mishustin’s conversation with Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Abdulla Aripov
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Mikhail Mishustin’s conversation with Prime Minister of the Republic of Tajikistan Kohir Rasulzoda
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Mikhail Mishustin’s conversation with Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Askar Mamin
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Mikhail Mishustin meets with Prime Minister of the Republic of Belarus Roman Golovchenko
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Mikhail Mishustin’s meeting with President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov
Meanwhile, in 2020 trade in agricultural products rose by almost 11 percent compared to 2019, which is encouraging. Our governments must take comprehensive steps to recover the pace of our mutual cooperation, including pre-COVID cooperation. I suggest we assign this to the Russian-Kyrgyz Intergovernmental Commission. Russia’s co-chair is Alexei Overchuk.
A fairly large number of Russian investors are involved in various areas in the Kyrgyz Republic – energy, mining and telecommunications. A number of programmes are underway, including financial and non-financial support via the Russian Export Centre. We also see lucrative prospects in agricultural engineering, the automobile industry, radioelectronics and industry in general. We expect Kyrgyzstan to carefully observe Russian investors’ rights and interests. We have repeatedly requested that they be provided with convenient and comfortable conditions to expand their operations in Kyrgyzstan.
We both have a successful record of fighting the coronavirus infection. Kyrgyzstan was given mobile laboratories and diagnostic test kits. A while ago, we sent a group of specialists from the Russian Federation to provide assistance, including humanitarian aid. In April, the first shipment of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine was delivered.
Also, the Travelling without COVID-19 platform is in effect within the Eurasian Economic Union which lets our citizens travel in a simplified way while observing all the necessary precautions and sanitary requirements.
Kyrgyzstan’s participation in the Eurasian Economic Union since 2015 has had a positive impact on economic development. Trade has increased by almost 50 percent, whereas exports from Kyrgyzstan to Russia increased more than four-fold. This shows the real impact of integration, including for the Kyrgyz economy.
Mr Maripov, I am ready to discuss the current issues on the bilateral agenda. Please, you have the floor.
Ulukbek Maripov: Thank you, Mr Mishustin. I am happy to meet with you again. Allow me to greet you and thank you for this opportunity to discuss the current issues on the bilateral agenda, all the more so since this is our first meeting with you as Prime Minister of the Russian Federation. As you noted, Mr Mishustin, our President Sadyr Japarov made his first foreign visit to the Russian Federation on 24 February, which gave a new boost to the traditionally high tempo of our strategic partnership. I am sure that cooperation between our countries will reach a qualitatively new level of interaction, so allow me to brief you on the domestic political situation in our republic.
On 11 April, Kyrgyzstan successfully held a referendum on the new constitution which was widely monitored by international observers including from the Russian Federation. As everybody knows, the people of Kyrgyzstan chose a presidential form of government. We are expecting the official results of the referendum shortly. The Government will operate in a new format as a cabinet of ministers.
We would also like to express our gratitude for the vaccines. Recently we received the Sputnik V vaccine, which our people were looking forward to, and we express our strong gratitude for that.
Mr Mishustin, we appreciate Russia’s decision to allocate grants to assist our country’s budget.
Regarding the Travelling without COVID-19 mobile app. We are making efforts to ease travel for our citizens, and this programme is helpful. Today, private laboratories are working on this as well, and in principle, the procedure has been set in motion.
Mr Mushistin, 2020 was declared the Cross Year of Kyrgyzstan and Russia, however, the pandemic changed things. Despite that, last year our countries managed to hold a number of events within the Cross Year. In order to finalise the cross year events, in view of the stable epidemiological situation, I suggest holding the closing ceremony in Bishkek with your participation in November 2021. We are very pleased to invite you for an official visit to our country, either before or after the regular meeting of the CIS Heads of Government Council to be held in Bishkek this year.
