On Friday March 3, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, who was on a two-day working visit in Tajikistan, held talks in Dushanbe with Rustam Emomali, Chairman of the Majlisi Milli (Tajikistan’s upper chamber of parliament), according to the press center of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.  

In the course of the talks, Rustam Emomali, in particular, noted, “We are happy that you have come to Tajikistan and that we can exchange views on the current aspects of relations between Tajikistan and Russia.  Tajikistan attaches great importance to the development of multifaceted cooperation with the Russian Federation. We are very pleased that the Tajik-Russian relationship of friendship and cooperation is developing dynamically in all areas.”

He reportedly further said that inter-parliamentary ties between the two countries are a vital part of the network of relations between Tajikistan and Russia.

“In this context, I would like to point out that our inter-parliamentary ties are gradually advancing to a qualitatively new high level.  We have established regular contacts between our parliaments and are closely cooperating at the multilateral level in the CIS and CSTO inter-parliamentary assemblies.  The inter-chamber parliamentary commission on cooperation is an effective mechanism.  Our parliaments are contributing to the strengthening of our countries’ strategic partnership. I am confident that our mutual desire to promote multifaceted cooperation meets our common interests,” Emomali said.

Russian prime minister, for his part, thanked Tajik parliamentary speaker for active interaction with his colleagues, Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko and State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin.

“…On June 28, 2022, Vladimir Putin and Emomali Rahmon reached practical agreements on expanding our interaction on the entire bilateral agenda. Of course, our task is to implement the decisions taken by our leaders,” said Mishustin.  “Our trade and economic cooperation is developing; trade has increased by 18 percent and reached US$1.5 billion. But this is not enough.  …We believe that it is necessary to increase this volume and are doing everything in our power to make new projects appear.”

“We are seeing significant potential for boosting interaction in energy, machine-building, industrial production, transport, agriculture, construction and digital economy,” the Russian prime minister noted. 

According to him, Russia is interested in deepening cooperation between the regions.

“Over 70 Russian regions have been developing business ties with Tajikistan. Approximately 260 leaders of Russian companies have come with us; the forum brought together 600 participants. I think it was a success,” Mishustin said, adding that priority areas of Russia-Tajikistan cooperation also include education and science.