Rustam Minnikhanov meets with OIC Secretary General and IRCICA Director General

President of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov has met with Secretary General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu and Director General of the IRCICA (the Research Center For Islamic History, Art and Culture under the OIC) Mr Halit Eren.

The meeting was held at the RT Government House with participation of Director of the Department for external relations under the RT President – Aide to RT President Iskander Muflikhanov, Chairman of the RT State Council Committee on culture, science, education and national issues Razil Valeev, plenipotentiary of the Republic of Tatarstan in the Turkish Republic Radik Gimatdinov, former representative of Russia in the OIC Kamil Iskhakov.

Further cooperation of the OIC and Tatarstan as a Russian region, preparation and holding of several events in the context of cooperation were discussed at the meeting.

According to Director of the Department for external relations under the RT President – Aide to RT President Iskander Muflikhanov, the parties discussed holding of the conference of specialists of the IRCICA and Academy of sciences in June 2012 in Kazan.

Moreover, a session of Youth organization under the OIC (the OIC Youth forum) is to be held in July 2012 in the Tatarstan capital.

Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu and Halit Eren believe that Tatarstan has wide experience of cooperation with countries of the Islamic world. Good relationships have been established with United Arab Emirates, the Turkish Republic and Middle East countries.

In addition, cooperation in the sphere of Halal food standardization was suggested during the meeting. To the point, the Standards and Metrology Institute for the Islamic Countries (SMIIC) is responsible for standardization and certification of Halal food and services. For now, this institution deals with issues of Halal food standardization only for the OIC countries. It is expected that the organization will render services to states – the OIC observers (by the way, Russia is the OIC observer).

Thus, cooperation of the institute’s specialists and Tatarstan in terms of information and technological exchange, studying legal basis is meant to be realized.

The OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu and the IRCICA Director General Halit Eren will take part in III All-Russia Forum of Tatar religious figures «National originality and religion» and solemn events «Izge Bolgar zhieny» in the old town of Bolgar.

Reference:

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is the largest and most powerful official government Muslim international organization. It comprises 57 states.
The Russian Federation is the OIC observer state.