Russia Does Not see Central Asia As Geopolitical Struggle Arena – Speaker

Russia has not and does not regard Central Asia as an arena for geopolitical confrontation and is interested in the development of all Central Asian states, Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko said on Thursday during a plenary session of the Inter-Parliamentary Forum of Central Asian countries and the Russian Federation.

“Russia, of course, is interested in the comprehensive development of all Central Asian states, increasing the well-being and security of the region. I want to stress that the Russian Federation has not considered and does not consider Central Asia as an arena for geopolitical confrontation; Russia traditionally respects the right of the states of the region to sovereign development and welcomes trends towards strengthening intraregional integration,” Matvienko said.

According to her, regional security challenges require special attention. “We are talking, first of all, about comprehensive work to counteract international terrorism, extremism, violent power overthrow, coups d’etat attempts. We are interested in the constant development of multilateral dialogue on these issues, the maintenance of cooperation mechanisms such as the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the meetings on interaction and confidence-building measures in Asia,” Matvienko added.

According to the Federation Council Speaker, today Russia’s relations with the countries of the Central Asian region are of a strategic partnership nature. “A special tone of trust is set by the leaders of our states, who maintain an ongoing dialogue,” she stressed.

As Matvienko noted, in 2021, Russia’s trade turnover with Central Asian countries amounted to about $37 billion, “significantly exceeding the figures in the previous period.” “There are almost 17,000 enterprises with Russian investment in the region. Despite the impressive figures, the potential of our economic cooperation is far from being fully realized. One of the main tasks of parliamentarians is to help unlock it, using the opportunities we have,” Matvienko concluded.