DUSHANBE, May 29, Asia-Plus — On Friday May 26, Tajik President Emomali Rahmonov met with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in the southern Russian resort city of Sochi to discuss economic, political and military cooperation.
In the course of the talks the two heads of state discussed the development of strategic partnership, including participation of Russian companies in major projects in Tajikistan, cooperation within the framework of integration agencies as well as the situation in the region, including a drug threat emanating from Afghanistan. During the meeting Putin and Rahmonov, in particular, reviewed the involvement of Russian electricity monopolist “Russia’s Unified Energy Systems” (RAO YeES), aluminum giant RusAl, and energy behemoth Gazprom in projects in Tajikistan.
“Tajikistan has worked out more than 20 draft agreements on cooperation with the Russian Federation and more than 10 of them have been submitted for consideration to the Russian side,” President Rahmonov said during Friday negotiations with his Russian counterpart in Sochi.
Russian president’s official site says the two also discussed a progress of the implementation of 14 agreements that were signed between the two countries during President Putin’s visit to Tajikistan in October 2004.
All in all, Tajikistan and Russia signed some 180 documents. Of them, 40 have already lost their effect. According to Putin, not all the remaining agreements are being implemented both for financial reasons and because of inopportune fulfillment of inner-state procedures. In this connection, the intergovernmental commission for economic cooperation is to inventory the whole complex of legal foundation between the two countries, beginning from 1991.
Regional security in Central Asia, including the situation in Afghanistan and joint efforts to fight drug trafficking across the Afghan-Tajik border was a key item of Friday’s talks.
Rahmonov and Putin coordinated a border cooperation program and assistance to the development of Tajik border forces. “Russia will assist the training and equipment of Tajik border forces,” Rahmonov said upon the completion of Friday’s meeting. “At my request, the Russian president has agreed to provide for Tajikistan an annual quota of 50 seats at Russian border officers’ training schools,” said Rahmonov. Fifty Tajik borer guards will be trained in Russia for free, according to him. “Russia will help Tajikistan to form civilized border forces, which will protect CIS southern boundaries in the most important, Afghan, direction,” Rahmonov said. At present, some 400 officers from Tajik defense ministry are being trained in Russia, the Tajik president stressed.
“We reaffirmed the importance of our interaction at the CIS, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO),” said Vladimir Putin, “This interaction not only upgrades the defense potential of each state, but also contributes to Central Asian stability.”
The two also discussed preparations for the SCO Shanghai summit due on June 15. “We hail the consistent and firm position of Tajikistan and President Rahmonov, which is targeted for constructive integration on the post-Soviet space. We will coordinate related efforts,” he said.
Putin said they had agreed to broaden business cooperation, in particularly, in hydropower energy, and implement a number of large investment projects. “Gazprom may join the development of oil and gas fields in Tajikistan,” he said.
“International partners and “Russia are ready to assist the reconstruction of border services of our southern neighbors,” Putin said. “The southern direction is especially important for our national security. Cooperation with Tajikistan is truly strategic in this respect,” he said.
