Tajik President Emomali Rahmon will start his two-day official visit to the Russian Federation on April 17. It will be the first official visit of Tajik leader to Russia over the last twelve years. Russia’s Ambassador to Tajikistan Igor Lyakin-Frolov is sure the upcoming visit will give a new impulse to further expansion of bilateral cooperation between Russia and Tajikistan.
Asked about what he expects from Tajik president’s visit to Russia, Ambassador Lyakin-Frolov said that Russia attaches significant importance to this event.
According to him, Russia and Tajikistan share similar approaches “to the main problems of regional and international agenda of the day.”
“Both countries are interested in cooperation to provide regional security and address modern challenges such as international terrorism, religious radicalism and drug trafficking,” Russian diplomat noted.
“Against the backcloth of threats to regional security emanating from neighboring Afghanistan, the military and technical cooperation between Russia and Tajikistan is of particular importance,” Lyakin-Frolov said, noting that the presence of the Russian military base in Tajikistan is the most important component of that cooperation.
“I am absolutely sure that the upcoming official visit of President Emomali Rahmon to the Russian Federation will give a new impulse to further expansion of bilateral cooperation between our countries,” Russian diplomat said.
According to him, a number of cooperation agreements will be signed during Emomali Rahmon’s visit to Russia.
“Thus, agreements on simplification of customs procedures and cooperation in the field of phyto-sanitary control are expected to be signed during the visit,” said Lyakin-Frolov. “All this will help increase the supply of Tajikistan’s goods to Russia.”
He further noted that Russia practically accounts for one-third of Tajikistan’s foreign trade turnover. In 2018, the two-way trade between Russia and Tajikistan reached 1.036 billion U.S. dollars, Lyakin-Frolov said.
“More than 130 enterprises with Russian or mixed capital now operate in Tajikistan and the largest investment project is the Sangtuda-1 hydroelectric power plant, which now accounts for 13 percent of the overall amount of electricity generated in Tajikistan,” Russian diplomat said.
“Implementation of a very important and interesting project aimed at launching the wholesale farm produce distribution center in Tajikistan is taking shape,” Ambassador Lyakin-Frolov said.
According to him, one more important moment is cooperation between the regions of the two countries.
