Over the past year, Western countries have done a lot to isolate Russia in the international arena. Numerous sanctions, intimidation of Russian partners and much more were supposed to create a real vacuum around the Russian Federation in order to force Moscow to accept the conditions put forward by the United States and its allies. However, as practice shows, there can be no question of any international isolation of Russia today, which was once again proved by the XIV International Economic Forum “Russia – the Islamic World: KazanForum” held in Kazan on May 18-19.
The forum itself has been a platform for discussing various issues between the Russian Federation and the countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) for several years. Its main meaning is the creation and implementation of joint projects, as well as the strengthening of trade, economic, scientific, technical, cultural and other ties. The forum was first organized in 2009, after which it became an annual summit attended by thousands of representatives from all over the world. The previous event was held in May 2022, and its participants were 6,388 people from 64 countries and 59 regions of Russia. In accordance with the decree of the President of the Russian Federation, the summit has been given a federal status, which demonstrates its importance for the Russian side. This is also due to the fact that the Islamic world, which does not want to be subordinate to the United States, covers about a quarter of the world’s population and 15% of the world economy.
The current forum was held under the slogan “Trust and Cooperation”, its key topics were cooperation, sustainable development, industry, Islamic finance, Halal industry, youth forum, entrepreneurship, business opportunities, diplomacy, technology, logistics, investment, women’s perspective, education, medicine, sports. Simply put, we are talking about the development of a comprehensive partnership in the modern realities of a changing world.
At the same time, the number of participants who expressed their desire to come to Kazan indicates that interest in Russia from most countries of the world has not only not decreased over the past year, but has also increased significantly – more than 7 thousand from 85 countries, including 45 diplomatic missions and 37 ambassadors. The largest delegations came from Azerbaijan, Iran, Malaysia, Tajikistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan. At the same time, they included senior government officials – prime ministers, deputy prime ministers, heads of foreign ministries, etc.
On the part of Russia, the summit was attended by Deputy Prime Ministers of the Russian Federation Andrei Belousov, Marat Khusnullin, Alexey Averchuk, Head of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, representatives of more than 80 Russian regions.
The volume of agreements that were prepared for signing within the framework of the forum should have been no less ambitious – about 100. Among them are contracts for the supply of products, various memoranda and agreements between enterprises, regions and countries, including agreements in the field of transport and logistics, education and finance, such as between AAOIFI (Organization of accounting and Auditing of Islamic financial institutions) and Sberbank on joint training of specialists in the field of Islamic finance, and many others. As the results of the summit showed, its organizers and participants managed to accomplish everything that was planned, and even more.
The main attention at the forum, of course, was paid to economic issues, and the Halal Expo exhibition became the central place. Here, for example, it became known that the Russian Federation is ready to increase trade with Tajikistan, including in the field of supplies of agricultural goods, woodworking, metallurgy, chemical industry, as well as vehicles. Moscow has similar plans for Azerbaijan, with which Russia intends to increase its trade turnover to $5 billion this year alone.
In addition, one of the most important topics for both the Russian Federation and the Muslim world was raised at the forum – the construction of the international transport corridor (ITC) “North –South” (the route from St. Petersburg to the port of Mumbai in India with a length of 7.2 thousand km). As Marat Khusnullin noted, today there is a need to revise the documentation requirements for the transportation of goods under this MTK in order to ensure “seamless logistics”. It is hardly accidental that on the eve of the forum on May 17, Russia and Iran signed an agreement on the construction of the last section of this route Rasht –Astara in Iran, which will allow goods to be transported by rail from St. Petersburg to The Persian Gulf.
One of the significant events of the first day was also the inter-parliamentary hearings, which were aimed at strengthening and developing international relations. They were held at the initiative of the cooperation group between the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation and the Parliament of the Persian Gulf countries. At the same time, the main purpose of the hearings was to “eliminate bureaucratic obstacles and build a direct effective dialogue between representatives of the peoples of the countries participating in the forum.”
In addition, smaller, but no less important events took place within the framework of the summit. Among other things, this is an International Forum of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, events dedicated to IT developments, a startup competition, a session “Women’s view of the “Nezhensky” business”, etc. In addition, a bilateral meeting of the delegation of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation with representatives of the Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysia was held. The meeting resulted in the signing of memoranda in the field of higher education and an intergovernmental agreement on mutual recognition of education, qualifications and academic degrees.
At the same time, it became known that Russia and Turkey are planning to establish a working group on digitalization within the framework of a mixed intergovernmental commission, as they see significant potential in joint activities in the field of high technologies. This and much more has shown that Russia’s international activity has not only not stopped, but continues to gain momentum, despite any Western sanctions. This was confirmed by the second day of the summit.
Among the main topics of the meetings and negotiations were youth policy, technology, sports, industry, medical tourism, maternal and child health, Halal hospitality, development of the digital financial assets market, etc. As part of the business programs, the issues of the work of the Russian economy under sanctions, relations with the Islamic world, investments in Russia and the OIC countries, the development of customs regulation in the EAEU and even the prospects of hockey in Islamic states were touched upon.
In addition, a number of agreements were signed that should strengthen Russia’s relations with the Islamic world. For example, the Ministry of Economy of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Crafts of Iran signed a memorandum of cooperation in the field of tourism. Moscow and Tehran have also reached all bilateral agreements on the use of Mir cards, and now the launch date of the process depends only on the central banks of the two countries.
On the sidelines of the summit in Kazan, issues of Afghanistan’s purchase of petroleum products from Russian companies were also discussed. According to available information, Kabul is already planning to conclude an agreement with Tatneft, which was invited “to participate in the development, production and refining of oil at its facilities.” And today, no one doubts that cooperation between the two countries will definitely continue in the current conditions.
One of the important events of the second day was the meeting of the Strategic Vision Group “Russia – the Islamic World”, which was attended by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia. The event was dedicated to “traditional spiritual and moral values as the basis of interreligious cooperation” and demonstrated, as Vladimir Putin noted in his greeting, Russia’s openness and “close trusting relations showing commitment to joining efforts to form a multipolar world based on interfaith cooperation.”
In total, during the days of the summit, about 200 different events were held in 16 thematic areas, including various business sessions, conferences, forums and competitions, round tables, as well as cultural, sports and educational events. Dozens of agreements and memoranda were signed, as well as many issues were resolved, among which the beginning of Russia’s logistical turn towards the countries of Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa is of particular importance. The launch of KAMAZ unmanned tractors between Moscow and St. Petersburg was even announced at the exhibition and the first prototype of the Russian Atom electric car was presented, the serial production of which is scheduled for 2025.
All this ultimately demonstrated that there is no question of any isolation and “destruction” of the Russian economy, contrary to the wishes of the collective West. As Rustam Minnikhanov noted, the forum was a success, among other things, because the Islamic world turned out to be on the side of Russia, and “a very serious step towards each other” was made in Kazan in two days in May.
This, perhaps, is the main meaning of the last summit, which showed that Russia is ready to lend a shoulder to anyone who seeks to build a new open and multipolar model of the global economy and international relations.
