Azernews.Az

By Kamila Aliyeva

Kyrgyzstan and Russia, which marked the 25th anniversary since the establishment of relations this year, seek to deepen successful and fruitful cooperation as Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev paid an official visit to Moscow at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Putin expressed hope that good relations between Moscow and Bishkek will continue after the change of the Kyrgyz president in October this year, TASS reported.

"I want to express the hope that everything that was laid by you during your presidency, which is coming to an end soon, will be continued, and we will follow the path of strengthening bilateral relations," he said at the beginning of the talks.

Moscow and Bishkek are now "close allies and reliable friends," according to Russian President.

"We know what transformations Russia in its own time and Kyrgyzstan in the last decade had to go through, and we hope that the period of instability is already in the past," he said.

"The situation [in Kyrgyzstan] has not only normalized, but also has become irreversible in the direction of positive development," Putin said.

He congratulated the Kyrgyz colleague on this achievement.

The Russian leader proposed to discuss what has been done to build bilateral relations recently and what is to be done, including the multilateral format, in particular the Eurasian Economic Union.

Atambayev in his turn thanked the Russian side for the great support that has been rendered to Kyrgyzstan.

"I have always felt fraternal support from you. And this, of course, helped to overcome some difficulties and problems," he said.

He drew attention to the fact that Russian-Kyrgyz relations should develop dynamically.

Following the talks, the Declaration on Strengthening Alliance and Strategic was signed.

The sides confirmed their intention to develop a strategic partnership and continue to coordinate their foreign policy activities.

"The parties will strengthen cooperation in ensuring reliable joint defense within the framework of the common military-strategic space," the declaration said.

Moscow and Bishkek "will pay special attention to ensuring food security, development of production specialization and cooperation of enterprises in the sphere of water, energy and agro-industrial complexes, agriculture, engineering, light industry, transport and communications, and military-technical sphere," the document stresses.

The leaders also noted the intention to "expand cooperation in the fight against terrorism, its financing and other violent manifestations of extremism, various forms of transnational organized crime, corruption, legalization of criminal proceeds, illicit trafficking of narcotic drugs, weapons, smuggling and crimes against cultural property."

An agreement on the development of military-technical cooperation was also signed.

Russia and Kyrgyzstan agreed to accelerate the work on the creation of the United Regional Air Defense System.

The declaration notes that the leaders highly appreciate the achieved level of cooperation in the military and military-technical spheres, including, Russia's military-technical assistance to Kyrgyzstan.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

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