DUSHANBE, October 22, 2009, Asia-Plus – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Tajik counterpart, President Emomali Rahmon began their talks at the Kremlin on Thursday.
According to Russia’s news agency Itar-Tass, a welcome ceremony of the Tajik president at the St. George Hall at the Grand Kremlin Palace envisaged under the format of Rahmon’s state visit in Moscow preceded the negotiations of the presidents.
After the ceremony the presidents had an eye-to-eye meeting.
The negotiations will continue involving the delegations of the countries. The countries are to adopt a joint statement, Itar-Tass reported.
During the negotiations, the sides are expected to discuss key issues of bilateral cooperation between the two countries and determine steps towards further expansion of strategic partnership between Russia and Tajikistan, the Kremlin press service noted.
The Russian president’s administration notes that one of priorities of the cooperation is hydropower engineering and the Sangtuda-1 hydroelectric plant (HPP) that has been put into operation this year is a symbol of mutually beneficial partnership between the countries.
According to information from Tajik president’s administration, they will also discuss participation of Russia in completion of construction of the Roghun HPP in Tajikistan, Itar-Tass reports.
It was noted that that there are questions in bilateral relations that can be solved only by the presidents. “The sides will discuss terms for further functioning of Russian military base in Tajikistan, including rent on it” said the source at the administration of President Rahmon, “Dushanbe hopes this issue will be solved during Rahmon’s visit to Moscow.”
We will recall that in September, the Tajik defense authorities denied rumors that Tajikistan would charge Moscow $300 million in rent for the base, Russia”s largest outside its borders, or that it could be closed.
On Wednesday, the presidents had an informal meeting at the Moscow regional presidential residence Barvikha. Medvedev noted that Moscow and Dushanbe “have numerous and serious ties in all spheres of our life – in economy, regional policy, humanitarian sphere and in culture.” “The state visit is not only the way to boost bilateral relations, but also an indicator of the status of the relations between Russia and Tajikistan,” the Russian president believes. Rahmon thanked for an invitation to pay the first state visit to Russia and noted that bilateral relations “have reserves that should be tapped.”
