DUSHANBE, 31.05.2018. /NIAT “Khovar”/. Today, the Founder of Peace and National Unity — Leader of the Nation, President of the Republic of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon met with the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev, who arrived in Tajikistan on an official visit.

During the meeting the two sides discussed the current state and future prospects of entire range of Tajik-Russian relations of friendship and mutually beneficial cooperation.

Taking into account the importance of strategic partnership between Tajikistan and Russia, the head of state noted that the further development of cooperation with Russia remains among the priority directions of foreign policy of Tajikistan.

The Head of state stressed key issues, the solution of which requires further joint actions to foster trade and economic cooperation as an important vector of bilateral relations between the countries.

In this regard, it was emphasized that «the further development of the interaction of the parties in this sphere is now of primary importance.»

It should be noted that today Russia occupies a leading position among trade and investment partners of Tajikistan. In 2017, the trade turnover between the two countries amounted to more than nine hundred million US dollars.

It was generally agreed that, at this stage, it is important to focus on resolving the issues of building ties in the relevant sectors of the economy.

In particular, the importance of expanding the geography of interregional relations, continuing joint efforts to develop and implement investment projects in the real sector of the Tajik economy was pointed out.

In this context, the importance of the practical implementation of the decisions taken within the framework of the work of the Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation was stressed in the specified terms.

The sides also touched upon one of the most important spheres of cooperation — labor migration.

It was about the relevance of further joint work on a set of issues of simplification of rules of stay, improvement of social security of Tajik labor migrants working in the Russian Federation and organized recruitment of labor migrants.

The sides paid special attention to the implementation of the agreements reached on increasing in Tajikistan of a network of schools where teaching is conducted in Russian.

The President of the Republic of Tajikistan and the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation also discussed in detail the issues of interaction in the cultural and humanitarian sphere and decided to take a number of efficient measures in this field. In this context, they noted the importance of creating favourable conditions to meet the growing interest of Tajikistan citizens in receiving education in Russian.

The Head of State stressed the importance of speeding up the process of construction of five secondary schools in Tajikistan with Russian-language lessons.

During the discussion of international issues, special attention was paid to cooperation on fighting contemporary security challenges and threats.

The President of the Republic of Tajikistan stressed the fruitful results of the joint work on combating terrorism, extremism, drug trafficking and other forms of transnational organized crime and spoke in favor of further strengthening of close interaction of the parties in the security sphere.

At the end of the meeting, the sides, noting substantive and productive talks, expressed their firm intention to further develop the Tajik-Russian cooperation within the framework of the strategic partnership.