DUSHANBE, June 24, 2008, Asia-Plus — On Tuesday June 24, President Emomali Rahmon received Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who arrived in Dushanbe to attend Days of Culture of Moscow.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting with President Rahmon, Luzhkov said that they had discussed a broad range of cooperation issues. Reminding that Tajikistan was serious affected by the past difficult winter, the Moscow mayor said that Moscow had delivered 20 diesel generators to Tajikistan that time.
According to him, they also discussed the issue of participation of Moscow specialists in rehabilitation of the Dushanbe central heating system.
He also noted that over the last year, trade between Moscow and Tajikistan has increased by 77 percent and stressed they will consider ways to increase several times. “We considered issues related to supply of those Tajik products to Moscow, which cannot be produced in Russia because of climatic conditions,” the mayor said, adding that the practice of organization of fairs should continue.
He further noted that the labor migration problem had been one of major topics of their talks. “President Emomali Rahmon asked me to increase quota for Tajik labor migrants to Moscow and I promised that we will try to influence solution of this issue, Luzhkov said.
Asked about deployment of Russian military bases outside the Russian Federation, he noted that they, including the Russian military base in Tajikistan, do not pursue any military ends and are dedicated to promote stability in the region.
