Today’s meeting of Tajik Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi with his visiting Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov resulted in signing of two cooperation agreements, CA-News reports.

The two sides signed an agreement of cooperation between territorial formations of the two countries and a program of cooperation between Tajik and Russian Foreign Ministries for 2012.

In the course of his meeting with Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon this morning the visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed that Tajikistan and Russia are strategic partners, ITAR-TASS reports.

“We are confident that our cooperation will let us use the existing potential,” Tajik President Rahmon said. Sergei Lavrov outlined the importance of productive dialogue.

“We value an opportunity to check the existing situation in all spheres in the frameworks of the 20th anniversary of our diplomatic relations to ensure implementation of all our agreements for further development of our strategic partnership,” the news agency has quoted Russian Foreign Minister as saying.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Dushanbe yesterday. Following his meeting with Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon Lavrov is scheduled to visit the Russian-Tajik Slavic University and the Russian World Foundation.

This is the first official visit of the top Russian official to Tajikistan after the last year’s diplomatic scandal between Moscow and Dushanbe.

Ahead of Lavrov’s trip to Dushanbe Russian media reported that Lavrov was about to visit Tajikistan to discuss bilateral and regional cooperation. His trip is dedicated to the 20th anniversary of Tajik-Russian diplomatic relations.

The talks will also focus on a wide range of bilateral issues in political, economic and humanitarian sectors and urgent directions of cooperation in such regional structures as CIS, SCTO, EurAsEC and SCO.