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Kyrgyz president stresses need for comprehensive cooperation with Russia

Eurasian integration should also remain "a priority area" for Kyrgyzstan

BISHKEK, June 27. /TASS/. Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Zheenbekov said during his speech in the national parliament on Wednesday he considered it necessary to develop all-embracing cooperation with Russia.

"The development of comprehensive ties with our ally and strategic partner - Russia, with which we are bound by the centuries-long friendship and the common historical destiny, which have been tested by time, remains an invariable priority in the foreign policy," the Kyrgyz president said.

At the same time, Kyrgyzstan is not going to give up cooperation with other states, he noted.

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"We have raised cooperation with our closest neighbor, the People’s Republic of China, to the strategic level. Through cooperation with China, it is necessary to achieve the development of the economy and the technological renewal," the Kyrgyz president said, also pledging to develop "bilateral and multilateral relations" with Turkey, Japan, the United States, member states of the European Union and countries of the Arab world.

The Kyrgyz president also said he considered it necessary to actively use the advantages gained by Kyrgyzstan from its accession to the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).

"As an EAEU member, we should maximally use the possibility of exports to the large market and we will develop the country’s transit and production potential," he noted.

Eurasian integration should also remain "a priority area" for Kyrgyzstan, he said.

Kyrgyzstan also sees the need to step up cooperation among member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) as this policy "pursues the goals of ensuring national security" of Kyrgyzstan, "the inviolability" of its state borders and "the elimination of the threats of terrorism," the Kyrgyz president stressed.

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