Marat Khusnullin takes part in the Russia – Islamic World Strategic Vision Group meeting
Marat Khusnullin takes part in the Russia – Islamic World Strategic Vision Group meeting
Marat Khusnullin takes part in the Russia – Islamic World Strategic Vision Group meeting
Russia – Islamic World Strategic Vision Group held its regular meeting as part of the Russia – Islamic World: KazanForum International Economic Forum. Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin attended the event.
The Deputy Prime Minister started by reading out a message of greetings on behalf of President Vladimir Putin. In it, the President stressed Russia’s age-old readiness to work with the Islamic world and went on to note that the country continued reinforcing these ties in the economic domain, as well as in research, education, and in other spheres, despite the challenging international environment.
“Russia views forging closer ties with the Islamic countries as one of its foreign policy priorities. We are witnessing attempts to undermine traditional moral values against the backdrop of rising geopolitical tension. This creates a sense of urgency when it comes to preserving and defending traditional spiritual and moral values. Islam forms an integral and important part of Russia’s historical and cultural fabric. Together with other traditional religions, it plays a key role in shaping spiritual norms within the Russian society. The Muslims of Russia have made an immense contribution to developing our country over centuries, as well as to preserving peace and accord among our peoples. On a special note, I would like to emphasise the outstanding contribution by the Muslims of Russia to achieving our shared victory in the Great Patriotic War. We marked its 80th anniversary on 9 May. Today, Muslims are demonstrating their spiritual strength and their dedication during the special military operation, alongside people belonging to other religious denominations,” Marat Khusnullin pointed out.
The Deputy Prime Minister went on to say that the Strategic Vision Group has helped improve economic performance by generating an upward momentum in Russia’s trade with the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation countries over the past five years. Trade in goods doubled, while there was a four-fold increase in trade in the services sector. Tourism is another development driver – over the past five years mutual tourist flows increased by a factor of 2.5, and reached 19 million people in 2024.
In his remarks, Chair of the Strategic Vision Group, Head of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, stressed that Russia and the Islamic countries have been working on their youth policies, while facing global challenges. They have also been seeking to promote dialogue among civilisations.
“The experience of Russia’s cooperation with Muslim countries shows that we face common challenges and can rely on the same cooperation frameworks, which means that we must make wider use of these approaches. Overall, we must work together on devising better approaches to spiritual and moral education for young people in view of the widening gap between traditional values and the ongoing globalisation. Expanding cooperation between Russia’s academic and research communities and the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (ICESCO) and Islamic countries’ universities, including by carrying out joint pilot projects in Tatarstan, could be an effective way to tackle this issue. The purpose of today’s meeting consists of improving mutual understanding and enabling Russia and OIC member states to share their best practices on youth policy matters,” Rustam Minnikhanov pointed out.
Prime Minister of Malaysia Anwar Ibrahim also took part in the meeting. In his remarks, he said that the group’s meeting was very important and thanked the President of Russia for lending this initiative his full support.
Anwar Ibrahim said that two days ago he had the honour of having a face-to-face meeting with Vladimir Putin, who thanked
Malaysia for supporting this forum, and also noted Tatarstan’s efforts to promote peace, steady growth and inclusion. The Prime Minister welcomed these
initiatives and undertakings since it was high time for Muslin scholars, ulamas
and the society in general to proactively contribute to these efforts. We must
prevent our youth from getting sidelined while scholars and ulamas continue to quarrel over secondary matters. Kazan has been promoting several landmark
projects, while Malaysia attaches special attention to cultural development and technology, including artificial intelligence, without forgetting about values
and moral principles – this is why youth engagement has so much importance for us, Anwar Ibrahim pointed out.
