The talks started with a conversation between Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and his Kyrgyz counterpart, Zhantoro Satybaldiyev.

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The three following documents were signed after the Russian-Kyrgyz talks in the presence of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and his Kyrgyz counterpart Zhantoro Satybaldiyev:

– A protocol between the Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation and the State Customs Service  at the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic on the project of easing customs procedures and control of goods originating in the Kyrgyz Republic and being imported into Russian territory on the basis of an information exchange;

– A protocol on  amendments to the protocol between the Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation and the State Customs Committee at the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic on organizing the exchange of information during the movement of goods between the Russian Federation and the Kyrgyz Republic and relevant customs procedures as of October 9, 2008;

 - An agreement on providing insurance coverage by EXIAR for the foreign trade contract on the supply of trolley buses signed by Trolza and the Mayor’s Office of the city of Bishkek.

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Dmitry Medvedev and Zhantoro Satybaldiyev meet with journalists to discuss the outcome of their talks

Transcript:

Dmitry Medvedev: Ladies and gentlemen, Zhantoro Satybaldiyev and I have just held talks. The talks show that we have good partner relations which we hope to improve further. Frankly speaking, we have had some difficulties in the past. Conversely, the majority of Russian-Kyrgyz issues are currently being resolved rapidly and efficiently. You have witnessed the signing of protocols on customs cooperation, and an insurance agreement on the supply of Russian trolleybuses for Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital. We signed other documents during the intergovernmental commission's session. I believe this is a good sign. Moreover, our trade is developing. Last year our commodity turnover grew by a quarter to about $2 billion; it considerably increased in the first months of the current year. Business activity has intensified, and this is perhaps more important than just the trade growth. The leading Russian companies are taking much more interest in the projects in the Republic of Kyrgyzstan. Of course, we take this into consideration and we hope that our partners in the Republic of Kyrgyzstan will make every effort to protect the rights and legal interests of Russian investors. 

We support the Republic of Kyrgyzstan's resolve to join the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space. This will bring about significant advantages, both to the Kyrgyz economy and to enterprises and hopefully to people. We have a special working group on joining the Customs Union. There is significant work ahead of us, 64 documents, but I hope that our Kyrgyz partners will accomplish this.

We have very large projects. During our expanded working lunch, we discussed the building of the Kambaratinskaya-2 Hydroelectric Station and the Upper Naryn Cascade Hydroelectric Stations – these are large and important projects. We discussed how we could intensify our cooperation and take into account the interests of our partners. In any case, these decisions will contribute to reducing the power shortage both in the Republic of Kyrgyzstan and in Central Asia.

The projects should comply with all standards of environmental and seismic safety. We believe that they will be interesting and mutually advantageous. In any case, it is high time we move on from decisions to practical work. Today we paid a lot of attention to this issue during our expanded talks.

We also agreed to expand industrial cooperation, and we discussed financial and banking cooperation. The intergovernmental commission (which met yesterday) works hard to implement all these plans. And importantly, direct contact between departments and regions are expanding.  

Cultural ties remain a significant aspect of our cooperation. This year the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University is celebrating its anniversary; it has 12,000 students. This university is 20 years old and we should take steps to improve and develop it.

In addition, we will continue to teach Kyrgyz students at Russian institutes. About 400 state scholarships have been offered for the 2013/2014 academic year. We believe that these are very important investments - investments in the future of Russian-Kyrgyz relations.

Of course, we work in various areas in the CIS, we prepare various anniversary celebrations. This year, our countries will hold events for the 85^th birthday of Chinghiz Aitmatov. They will be dedicated to the literary heritage of this outstanding writer whose works are our mutual heritage. 

I would like to note that we have regular contacts at all levels, we have working contacts. Although this has been a quick working visit, it has been productive. I believe that we should continue to work together like this, so as to be an example of good relations between our two countries – the Russian Federation and the Republic of Kyrgyzstan.   

Mr Satybaldiyev, will you take the floor?

Zhantoro Satybaldiyev: Thank you, Mr Medvedev. You have briefed the journalists on practically all issues that we have discussed over the course of these two days.

I will only add that many people ask me about the result following these two days. I am absolutely sure that the Russian leadership is regaining confidence in the Kyrgyz leadership step by step – this is the most important thing, we achieved this last year and in early 2013. And this includes all spheres, from the banking sector to the energy sector, we discussed the migration problem and pensions – there are practically no such issues that we have not discussed.

Mr Medvedev, I thank you again for your invitation and for enabling this working visit. I hope that our countries will cooperate more closely. We should restore our former ties and mutual confidence. This is the main conclusion of my visit. I believe that if we continue to work with the same trust, then we will resolve many problems that have accumulated in recent years, including those problems that you do not even wish to recall. 

Dmitry Medvedev: I do not wish to and will not recall them.

Zhantoro Satybaldiyev:  Yes. I’d rather we turn this page…

Dmitry Medvedev: … of our history.

Zhantoro Satybaldiyev: … we are past this point in our history, and Kyrgyz-Russian relations are beginning to grow dynamically. Thank you.

Dmitry Medvedev: Thank you very much. Thank you.

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