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OIC satisfied with Putin’s decision to run for presidency

“We will be very happy to continue our cooperation with the new administration,” the head of the OIC said. “We wish success to both of them”

NEW YORK, September 25 (Itar-Tass) —— Head of the Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu expressed satisfaction with the decision of Vladimir Putin to run for presidency.

“I am very satisfied with this decision,” he said. “It means that two my good friends, who I consider to be my personal friends, will be at power, and this duet will work very harmoniously so that to make Russia a modern, mighty nation, which would take an appropriate place in the world,” Secretary General of the Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation /OIC/ Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said commenting the decision of Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to run for presidency.

In an interview with Itar-Tass at the OIC’s mission at the UN in New York, he said: “Our organisation will be happy to continue developing our relations, which began in the times when Putin was the Russian president, and which continued during the presidency of Medvedev.”

“We will be very happy to continue our cooperation with the new administration,” he continued. “We wish success to both of them.”

“I personally wish them success and I wish to the people of Russia, the Russians of all religions – Christians, Muslims, and others – wellbeing and progress with the new leadership.”

The head of the OIC, which unites 57 countries, said that he had visited Russia twice – he made the first visit in the presidency of Vladimir Putin, and the second visit – in the presidency of Dmitry Medvedev.

“We are satisfied with the good relations we have with Russia,” he said. “I believe it was me who opened for Russia doors to the OIC, where it now has a status of an observer, and I believe this was one of most important decisions over my entire career.”

“I am adamant that it was taken well and with respect by Russian leaders,” he continued. “We have regular consultations and are expanding cultural and economic cooperation between Russia and the Muslim world.”

The latest meeting of the kind took place on the sidelines of the 66th session of the UN General Assembly, where Ihsanoglu had negotiations with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.