Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon urged Russian media to objectively highlight Tajik-Russian cooperation
“I would like to ask Russian media sources to provide readers with real facts about our bilateral cooperation, conditions, in which Russian-speaking people live in Tajikistan, and do not listen to those people who don’t even know where Tajikistan is,” President Rahmon spoke today at the opening ceremony of the MSAI’s branch in Dushanbe.
“I would like to say that there is no real information about Tajikistan in Russian society as well as there is no information about Tajik-Russian cooperation. For so many years we are trying to do that, but the information provided by the media leaves much to be desired,” he said.
He added that Russia has so many things in Tajikistan it does not has in any other Central Asian country. He cited the 201st military base, the “Window” space complex and the work of Russian border control advisors as an example.
President Rahmon said Russian journalists should objectively highlight the existing military and technical cooperation between the two countries as well as Tajikistan’s membership in CSTO and CIS.
“Give people the real information, let Russian society know where Tajikistan is and what Russian citizens do here, how they live and work here,” he said.
“We do respect the interests of our strategic partner, but this strategic partner should respect the interests of its partners and allies. We know what is going on in the world and how other countries treat their regional allies, how they protect the interests of their partners. This is not a complaint, I’m just asking to provide real facts about relationships between Tajik and Russian nations. I’m not even talking about relationships between the leaders, I’m talking about the relationships between nations,” Rahmon has said, stressing once again that “the great Russia was and remains Tajikistan’s main strategic partner.”
