UPDATES WITH MEETING BETWEEN RUSSIAN, KYRGYS PRESIDENTS, QUOTES FROM BOTH PRESIDENTS
By Elena Teslova
MOSCOW (AA) - During his first foreign visit this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday met with his Kyrgyz counterpart Sadyr Zhaparov in Bishkek, the Kremlin press service.
Putin's visit started with an official meeting with his Kyrgyz counterpart Sadyr Zhaparov at the Ala-Archa state residence in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan's capital, the Kremlin press service said in a statement.
Opening the meeting, Zhaparov said that the two countries have set a target of increasing the bilateral trade turnover to $5 billion dollars.
"The issues of developing trade, economic and investment ties with Russia play a key role for us. In this regard, we are aimed at increasing bilateral trade," he said.
For his part, Putin said that last year, the trade turnover increased by 37% to a record $3.4 billion, and in the first half of this year, it added another 17.9%.
"Russia is the largest investor in the Kyrgyz economy, about 36% of all accumulated foreign direct investments in Kyrgyzstan are Russian investments. There are 800 enterprises with Russian participation in the republic," he said.
Russia and Kyrgyzstan are actively switching to national currencies in trade settlements, building stable channels of credit and banking cooperation and as a result, the share of the ruble in commercial transactions has reached an impressive 83%, Putin said.
Following the talks, Putin and Zhaparov attended a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Russian military airbase in Kant city.
The Russian president is scheduled to hold talks with Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev later on Thursday.
The Council of Heads of State of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) will meet in Bishkek on Friday in both a narrow and expanded format.
On the same day, Putin will also hold a separate meeting with Tajik President Emomali Rahmon.
The CIS members include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.
The CIS is an international organization designed to regulate the relations of cooperation between some states that were formerly part of the Soviet Union.