MOSCOW, May 22. /TASS/. International forums being held in Russia confirm that the country is not in isolation, as these events gather the global majority, Yevgeny Primakov, the head of the federal agency for CIS affairs, has told TASS in an interview.
"The more than 80 countries are countries representing, first of all, the global majority. You will not see flags of the European Union or the United States and so on. Anyway, they would not agree to attend a meeting of this kind. Their aim is to isolate Russia. But again, I repeat: Russia cannot be isolated. We have many friends and many partners," he said, answering the relevant question in the context of the conference Russia - Islamic World: KazanForum 2024.
Primakov noted that the Kazan forum had aroused great interest.
"We discussed ontological, worldview issues of how unique the experience of interethnic cooperation and friendship is in Russia, which is home to about 20 million Muslims, while a majority of the population is Christian, and how these communities stay on friendly terms and coexist. It is an incredible experience," he emphasized.
Primakov drew attention to the fact that it was important for Russia's friends from the Islamic world to understand that "their countries represent a huge civilization - self-valuable, precious, and sovereign, which retains its independence and is in no way obliged to worship someone in the colonial context."
"What is good about the forum itself and the meeting of the Russia-Islamic World Strategic Vision Group is that such discussions here are supported by economic projects." <...> Tatarstan and Kazan have shown once again they are important, if not the most important centers of Russia's public diplomacy in the context of the Islamic religion," Primakov concluded.
The International Economic Forum "Russia - Islamic World: KazanForum 2024" was held at the Kazan Expo international exhibition center on May 14-19. TASS was the forum’s general information partner.