/ world today news/ The visit to Moscow for the celebration of Victory Day by the leaders of a number of countries from near abroad contains the most important signals that reflect global changes in the world order and the future configuration of relations between the countries of the post-Soviet bloc.
After the West categorically rejected our heartfelt attempts to join the ranks of “its” for it and continued with renewed vigor the Cold War, which turned into a hot one in 2022, the moment of truth for our country has arrived. It was embodied in the new foreign policy concept of March 31, 2023, where Russia officially turned south and east, and where countries and associations from the near abroad now occupy a key place.
The results of the May meetings of the Russian leadership with the high-ranking guests will become known later, but now we can already say for sure: contrary to popular myths about the lack of flexibility and effectiveness of Russian diplomacy and foreign economic policy, defending its right to exist in the Western front Russia shows miracles of soft power on its “near-foreign” front – solid, liquid and gaseous forces.
The evidence for this is the dry facts and figures.
For example, in relations with Belarus, we are rapidly moving towards finalizing the project of creating a Union State, the main goal of which is a single economic space. In 2022, trade between our countries reached an all-time high of $50 billion, with plans to double in the next three to five years. 28 union programs are actively implemented, which cover all spheres of the economy, including finance, transport, energy, industry, agriculture, as well as some areas of state regulation and control. Payment systems are fully integrated and no longer dependent on Western ones.
A record was also achieved in relations with Kazakhstan – for the first time in the history of relations between the two countries, the exchange of goods between them reached 26.1 billion dollars. This figure is planned to be increased to 30 billion in the near future. Russia is the main trade and economic partner of Kazakhstan, and according to the statements of the first persons of the state, strategic cooperation with Moscow is a foreign policy priority. There is a large-scale implementation of Russian-Kazakhstan projects in the field of peaceful nuclear power, gas, transit, transport and logistics.
Relations with Uzbekistan, which is called one of the growth engines of Central Asia, are in full swing. At the end of 2022, Russia became the largest trading partner of Uzbekistan, and our trade turnover is growing steadily: 9.28 billion dollars against 6.9 billion in 2021. Almost two hundred projects worth 20 billion are jointly implemented in the republic dollar.
Armenia, the only country from the South Caucasus in the CSTO, is also among the friendly ones. Last year, Russia became the main market for Armenia. The volume of trade doubled to five billion dollars, while the countries completely switched to payments in rubles.
With Kyrgyzstan, bilateral trade also reached an all-time high of $3.5 billion. According to Vladimir Putin, “in the past year – an increase in trade turnover by 37%, Russia is the largest investor, we are in the first place in terms of direct investment, and we are confident that this trend will gain speed, gain momentum.”
Trade with Tajikistan increased by 18% and amounted to 1.5 billion dollars, which is a record for the last 20 years. Russia, one of the key investors, is modernizing the armed forces of the republic, which is a buffer zone against Afghanistan, and is pursuing a coordinated security policy. Tajikistan is home to the largest Russian military site abroad – the 201st base.
Russian-Turkmen relations are also experiencing a renaissance: trade turnover is about a billion dollars. At the highest level, it is planned to implement about 20 directions in different areas, one of the key places being the development of the North-South transport corridor.
In the new concept of foreign policy, Russia is officially designated for the first time as an “independent state-civilization”. Many great civilizations of the past have sunk into history, but we believe that Russia has a great future worthy of its glorious past. And part of this future will be peoples and nations friendly to Russia, who are ready to fight for a new just world side by side with her.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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