Dagestani Head attends meeting of Russian regions’ governors

Moscow, December 1, 2014. Dagestan Head Ramazan Abdulatipov took part in the meeting of the Russian Regional Governor Council at the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow on Friday.

Russian governors, senior officials of the presidential administration and the federal executive authorities met to discuss intensifying inter-regional and cross-border relations of Russian region in today’s world.

Opening the meeting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov summed up implementation of the previous meeting’s recommendations for deepening integration in CIS countries and implementation of the state program for assisting voluntary resettlement to the Russian Federation for Russians living abroad including refugees from Ukraine.

Participants considered the situation in the regions in the context of sanctions imposed by the West and outlined measures to overcome their negative effects. They agreed they needed to diversify and strengthen foreign economic relations with the Asia-Pacific countries, Latin America, India and Iran. They supported the idea of promoting inter-regional cooperation within BRICS and employing new opportunities for regional development after Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union comes into force, which is January 1, 2015. They also spoke in favor of maintaining different forms of cooperation with Europe, in particular, following the line of cross-border cooperation programs with the EU negotiated until 2020.

Dagestan’s advantageous geographical position to a certain extent speaks to its leading indicators among other North Caucasian republics in terms of the foreign trade turnover. Another significant indicator of Dagestan’s foreign economic activity is figures of attracting foreign investment.

Dagestan enjoys the tightest economic relations with Azerbaijan, Iran, China, and Turkey. It is a long-term cooperation - Dagestan has signed 8 cooperation agreements with 6 foreign countries and regions (Azerbaijan, Iran, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Kyrgyzstan). They are also developing Dagestan missions with Russian trade promotion offices in Iran and Turkey, and the Dagestan mission in Baku.

In addition to economic cooperation, Dagestan and Azerbaijan collaborate in humanitarian area. There are about 240,000 ethnic Dagestanis in Azerbaijan, and over 125,000 Azerbaijanis in Dagestan. Humanitarian cooperation is also actively increasing with other foreign economic partners such as Turkey, Iran, and Belarus.