Oleg Matytsin, Minister of Sports of the Russian Federation, welcomed the participants of the "Russia-Islamic World" Forum in Kazan on May 19 at the session "Sport - Factor of Sustainable Partnership between Russia and the Islamic World". The session organized by the Ministry of Sport of Russia was attended by General Director of the Kingdom of Bahrain Abdulrahman Sadeq Askar, Minister of Youth Policy and Sports of Uzbekistan Adham Ikramov, Minister of Youth and Sports of Mali Moussa Attaye, President of the Russian Olympic Committee Stanislav Pozdnyakov, Executive Director of the Sports Development Authority of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Suhail Bin Butti Al Maktoum and President of Abu Dhabi Water Sports Club Humaid Abdullah.
"Sport is a movement that unites peoples, develops traditional values and allows us to live by the rules. Today we see that a number of organizations are questioning these values. Russia has many friends - both the forum and today's session demonstrate this. We will never let athletes offend, we cannot allow the rights of our citizens to be violated. And we continue to engage in dialogue with international organizations, proving that Russia is a reliable partner of international sport. We do not divide the sporting community into friendly and unfriendly countries, and we are glad to see everyone at our competitions, which we hold in an open format. I'm sure that this difficult period will pass, and we will overcome it together. We are in a land where there are a lot of different nationalities and religions. Kazan demonstrated many times, hosting major competitions, that the world of sports is united and we must always be the winners," said Oleg Matytsin.
Adham Ikramov, Minister of Youth Policy and Sports of the Republic of Uzbekistan, spoke about national priorities in the work on sports development: "We have identified four key areas - mass sports, selection, sports of the highest achievements and digitalization. There are 36 million people in Uzbekistan, and we are trying to ensure mass sports through digitalization.
President of the Russian Tennis Federation, member of the International Olympic Committee Shamil Tarpishchev spoke in his report about the development of Russian tennis and noted opportunities for further cooperation with Islamic countries in training tennis players, including the proposal to include tennis in the Games of Islamic solidarity.
State Duma deputy Marat Bariev suggested holding the Youth Islamic Games.
Alexander Chernov, Director of the Universiade 2023 Executive Directorate, introduced the International University Sports Festival to the panelists, the press service of the Ministry of Sports of Russia said.
A day earlier in the Volga Region University of Sports and Tourism the first meeting of the Sub-Commission for Cooperation in Physical Culture and Sports of the Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Uzbekistan was held.
