MOSCOW, June 14 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's president called for stronger trade ties with Kyrgyzstan at a meeting on Sunday with the country's leader, ahead of a summit of the post-Soviet CSTO security bloc.
Dmitry Medvedev told Kurmanbek Bakiyev that the global economic crisis has caused a slight decline in Russia's trade with the Central Asian country.
"We need to think about how to boost trade activity, to prevent trade turnover declining significantly due to the crisis," the Russian leader said.
The Kyrgyz president said that the economic development of the whole Central Asian regions depends on Russia's economic success.
"If the Russian economy develops, then the economies of the Central Asian states, including that of Kyrgyzstan, will also develop," Bakiyev said.
The summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization comprising Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan was preceded by a meeting of the CSTO Council of Foreign Ministers.
