DUSHANBE, August 21, 2010, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan and Russia have agreed to develop and adopt an intergovernmental economic cooperation program for 2011-2015, according to the Tajik presidential press service.
This issue was one of major topics of a meeting of Tajik President Emomali Rahmon with his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev that took place in Sochi, Russia on August 18.
Tajik and Russian leaders also agreed to be in permanent contact over the pressing bilateral, regional and international issues.
Besides, Rahmon and Medvedev reached an agreement on improvement of the legal foundation for labor migration. Under this agreement, the term of stay of Tajik nationals in Russia with no paperwork will be extended to 90 days. Before that, Tajik nationals had to register within three days of their arrival in Russia.
The sides also reached agreement on satellite broadcasts of Tajik television to the Russian Federation and resumption of RTR-Planeta rebroadcasting in Tajikistan.
They also discussed issues related repayment of the Barqi Tojik power holding (Tajik electricity supplier) debt to open joint-stock company (OJSC) Sangtudinskaya GES-1, which operates the Sangtuda-1 hydroelectric power plant in Tajikistan. They reached agreement on gradual repayment of the debt.
Besides, the heads of state of Russia and Tajikistan agreed on opening of branches of two other Russian higher educational institutions in Tajikistan as well as opening of the Tajik information and culture center in Moscow and the Russian information and culture center in Dushanbe.
We will recall that Tajik President Emomali Rahmon held a bilateral meeting with Russian President Medvedev on sidelines of a quadrilateral summit involving the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan, Hamid Karzai and Asif Ali Zardari.
