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The two presidents discussed prospects for developing bilateral cooperation in the political, trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian areas, and joint efforts in the Eurasian integration associations.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Japarov, I am very glad to see you.

Despite all the difficulties and restrictions we are still able to meet personally, to touch base.

To begin with, I would like to congratulate you once again on assuming the office of the President of Kyrgyzstan.

Our countries have built not only warm and close relations. These are allied and preferential relations. I am very glad that today Russia occupies the first place in your country’s trade and economic ties. We are hoping that you will manage to normalise the domestic political situation.

We have a big agenda. I know that the plans for your visit include many events and meetings at practically all levels: government executive bodies, the Government, and the parliament. I am sure this will promote the development of our bilateral relations.

We helped Kyrgyzstan in its efforts to counter the epidemic. Incidentally, I would also like to express my satisfaction with your successes on this track. You have managed to curb the spread of the epidemic and reduce the number of new coronavirus cases. I know that our Kyrgyz friends would like to take additional measures on cooperation in this area. We will do everything we can, we will continue to support you. You know about the measures that were taken earlier.

The Cross Year of Kyrgyzstan in Russia and Russia in Kyrgyzstan was launched here last year. Unfortunately, due to this pandemic we were unable to hold all of the 200 planned events of different level and quality. I am sure that as the situation stabilises and sanitary-epidemiological indicators improve, we will catch up with all this, including our humanitarian cooperation. There are many interesting and promising opportunities in this respect.

To sum up, we will be glad to work with you in all these areas. I would like to say again that we are hoping the measures you plan to take inside the country, including amendments to the Fundamental Law of Kyrgyzstan, will facilitate stabilisation in the republic and will certainly promote our bilateral interstate ties.

Welcome once again. I am happy to see you.

President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov: Thank you, Mr President. I am delighted to greet you.

I would like to express my deep gratitude for the congratulations on my election as President of the Kyrgyz Republic and for the invitation to visit the Russian Federation.

Of course, this visit to Russia as my first foreign visit in the capacity of President of the Kyrgyz Republic is proof of the high level of bilateral relations between our countries. We intend to continue strengthening our strategic partnership and allied relations.

First of all, I would like to express our deepest gratitude to you for supporting and providing all-round assistance to the settlement of our political crisis. We are resolved to continue our cooperation with the EAEU, the CIS, the CSTO and the SCO. This is our foreign policy and economic priority.

We are especially grateful to you for providing support during the difficult time of the pandemic. I would also like to point out that the effectiveness and safety of the Russian coronavirus vaccine has been recognised by the international community. I hope that we will launch a vaccination campaign in our country soon as well.

We are always ready for cooperation with the Russian Federation. It would give me great pleasure to use this occasion to invite you to make an official visit to Kyrgyzstan at your convenience.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much.

I would like to mention one more issue which I regard as extremely important for our bilateral relations, that is, the preservation of the state status of the Russian language. This is important to us…

Sadyr Japarov: This is also important to us.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, this is also important to the citizens of Kyrgyzstan, because this offers them certain advantages on the Russian labour market: they do not need to take additional tests and they avoid additional problems upon arriving in Russia. I would like to commend your attitude to this matter. As I have already said, this is important to us, to both sides. I would like to express the hope that both sides will continue to pursue this line. For our part, we will do our best to help the people of Kyrgyzstan realise their ambition to study Russian in their home country. We have certain plans in this sphere, and we will be working on them as well.

Thank you very much.

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