DUSHANBE, March 29, Asia-Plus — The first two-day meeting of the Group “Strategic Vision: Russia-Islamic World” headed by Yevgeni Primakov, Chairman of Russia’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry, concluded in Moscow on March 28.
Former heads and foreign ministers from 20 Islamic countries, including Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, gathered in Moscow to attend this meeting.
Tajikistan was represented at the meeting by Sulton Mirzoshoyev, director general of the “Kokhi Vahdat” State Complex in Dushanbe.
The meeting focused on working out joint actions to prevent clash of civilizations.
According to information from the Russian Embassy in Dushanbe, during the meeting it was noted that present confrontation between the West and the Islamic world did not have religious character and was not the clash of the civilization but it was determined by political and socioeconomic motives.
In this connection a problem of combination of freedom of speech and respect for spiritual values rises. “We have both positive and negative experience in this direction but as a whole, there have never been religious wars in Russia,” V. Popov, Russia’s MFA Ambassador at Large also coordinator of this meeting, said. “Therefore as the Eurasian state we are becoming civilization bridge between the East and the West.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin noted in his address to the meeting participants that international community should combine efforts and expand cooperation in preventing the threat of international terrorism, proliferation of the mass destruction weapons and attempt to provoke inter-civilization conflict
