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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Japarov,

I am happy to see you and to be able to discuss topics of mutual interest, of which there are many. Our countries are close; we are strategic partners and allies working together in many international regional organisations.

Russia remains the leading trade and economic partner of the Kyrgyz Republic. We had a notable boost in trade last year. Trade continues to grow this year as well, at a rather high pace. Last year, it grew by 46.6 percent and this year, by 30 percent over the first five months, which is a good result.

Russia continues to provide economic support to Kyrgyzstan. Last year, we offered $20 million in financial aid. This year, $1.5 million was allocated for the restoration of the social infrastructure damaged during certain tragic events in regional border areas. We will continue to do this, taking into account the most recent tragic events as well. We will discuss this matter today.

We are ready to provide technical assistance in emergency relief efforts and natural disaster response. In July, the Government signed a resolution to supply firefighting equipment and helicopters, with around 1.3 billion rubles allocated for this purpose from the Russian budget.

Russia is the largest energy supplier to Kyrgyzstan. At your request, energy is supplied at a concessional rate and free of duty.

Seventy Russian regions are involved in region-to-region cooperation. A conference was held in Yekaterinburg in June.

We are developing humanitarian and cultural links. There are nine Russian-language secondary schools in the Kyrgyz Republic. Teachers from Russia work in Kyrgyz schools, which is very important in our opinion. We want to thank you for supporting the Russian language in Kyrgyzstan. This support of the Russian language is a foundation for developing our relations in many other areas.

Last year, Bishkek successfully hosted the Days of Russian Culture, a conference on spiritual heritage, and a young leaders’ forum. As I have said, all these projects are starting blocks creating conditions for the progress of our relations in the future.

I am very happy to see you and to be able to speak with you on the sidelines of the SCO summit.

President of the Kyrgyz Republic Sadyr Japarov: Thank you, Mr Putin.

I am happy to meet with you again.

Russia has long been our leading trade and economic partner and our biggest strategic ally.

As you noted, over the first six months of this year, Russia-Kyrgyzstan trade doubled year-on-year. We have successful investment projects, supported by the Kyrgyz-Russian Development Fund. To date, the fund has approved 3,200 projects worth $440 million in total.

As you also noted, we expect to start building more secondary schools in the Kyrgyz Republic, including five schools to be completed in 2023 and four schools in 2024.

I am confident that our meeting today will contribute to strengthening the mutually beneficial cooperation between Russia and Kyrgyzstan and our multidimensional cooperation.

Once again, I am happy to see you.

Vladimir Putin: Likewise.

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