27.02.2017, Dushanbe city

Ladies and gentlemen,

Our work today was constructive and fruitful, and we signed a number of bilateral cooperation agreements. It is symbolic that Mr Putin’s visit takes place as we mark the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between our countries. I am sure that this visit will give a new boost to dynamic and harmonious development of our relations in all different areas.

Russia was and is Tajikistan’s key strategic partner in all areas. As guarantor of the peace agreement, Russia played an important part in restoring peace and harmony to Tajikistan, and made a big contribution to Tajikistan’s socioeconomic development, and strengthening its national independence.

Over the years since independence, cooperation with Russia has developed dynamically in all important areas of life. The legal base for our relations now counts around 260 documents that cover practically all areas of cooperation, from military-technical cooperation to big socioeconomic projects.

The summit meeting today confirmed once again the high level of political trust, which we value very highly. Both countries give a high assessment of our level of relations and agree that there is much potential that could be put to use to develop them further.

We expressed our mutual desire to continue our on-going political dialogue, which helps us to optimise our cooperation in all areas. We looked in detail at the situation with and prospects for cooperation on our bilateral relations and within international organisations such as the UN, SCO,CIS, and CSTO.

Expanding interregional cooperation is very important for adding new substance and content to our economic ties and deepening our existing ties in this area. We reaffirmed our readiness to continue working together in important economic sectors such as agriculture, textiles, mining, and energy, including the oil and gas sector.

We affirmed our readiness to increase supplies of environmentally healthy fruit and vegetables on the Russian market. We agree that the intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation plays a key part in resolving the tasks before us today.

We have discussed labour migration issues. We hope that the Tajikistani side’s initiatives in this regard will be supported by the Russian Government.

We decided to take a number of efficient measures in the cultural and humanitarian, including educational, fields. In this context, we noted the importance of creating favourable conditions to meet the growing interest of Tajikistan citizens in receiving education in Russian.

Today, there are branches of three Russian universities in Tajikistan, and over 20,000 Tajikistani citizens study at Russian universities, including under quotas annually allocated by Russia.

We are grateful to the Russian Government for the decision to increase the number of quotas for students from Tajikistan in the academic year. Other priorities are the construction of new secondary schools in Tajikistan with Russian-language lessons and providing our educational institutions with teachers of Russian, textbooks and manuals.

During the discussion of international issues, special attention was paid to cooperation in the fight against terrorism, extremism, drug trafficking and other forms of transnational organised crime. We noted the efficient and fruitful cooperation of law enforcement agencies and agreed to further coordinate our efforts in this regard.

As we all know, Tajikistan accounts for about 60 percent of the Commonwealth’s external borders with Afghanistan. Our country is an outpost on this line, and this imposes on us a great responsibility to respond adequately and prevent any emerging threats and challenges. In this regard, we paid particular attention to the situation in Afghanistan and expressed our shared view of the extreme importance of establishing peace and stability in this neighbouring country.

Mutual desire to develop military and military-technical cooperation was expressed, primarily through upgrading the Armed Forces of Tajikistan in order to strengthen our country’s defence capability and ensure regional security.

In conclusion, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the President of Russia, Mr Putin, for awarding the high state decoration of the Russian Federation – the Order of Alexander Nevsky. I take this decoration as a symbol of great appreciation for the Tajikistani people’s contribution to the development and strengthening of friendly relations with brotherly Russia.

I am pleased to give the floor to Mr Putin.