On Wednesday February 21, President Emomali Rahmon met with Russian Resident Vladimir Putin in Kazan, the capital of Russia’s Republic of Tatarstan.

The Tajik president’s official website says the parties discussed state and prospects of further expansion of bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and the Russian Federation.  

They reportedly also exchanged view on a number of international and regional issues being of mutual interest. 

In the course of the talks, Emomali Rahmon expressed his satisfaction with the occasion to meet and congratulated the Russian side on organizing and holding the international tournament, the Games of the Future, at a high level, according to the Tajik president’s official website.

The heads of the two states highly commended the results of the official top-level negotiations between Tajikistan and Russia, which were held in Moscow in November 2023, as well as the meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission held in December last year.

It was mentioned that the bilateral trade rose 2.5% in a year to December 31, 2023, reaching 1.8 billion US dollars, and Russia maintained its leadership position in the total volume of foreign trade of Tajikistan.

The parties reportedly also discussed a number of urgent issues related to cooperation between the two countries in sectors like energy, agriculture, investment, migration, education and culture and the necessary agreements were reached.  

Meanwhile, the Russian president’s official website says that during a meeting with Tajik president, Vladimir Putin thanked him for coming. 

“I told my colleagues earlier that many athletes have come from 104 countries.  There are many participants. Frankly, I have not seen live competitions in these kinds of mixed sports before.  I hope it will be entertaining.

“I know that Tajikistan brought a team of its own.  We will watch the games together. Young people around the world are becoming increasingly involved in this type of sport.

“We will, of course, use this opportunity to discuss bilateral relations which are making strides, it should be noted.  I am not aware of a single issue that we were unable to resolve, especially following our meetings.

“We will move forward in all areas, primarily, the economy.  I will not elaborate, but overall and thanks to our personal relations, among other things which I think are a serious factor, we are making progress and, I am sure, we will keep going at a good pace,” Putting was cited as saying.

Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, for his part, reportedly thanked Vladimir Putin for inviting him.

“I would like to congratulate you on holding this international tournament, the Games of the Future. This is a unique event.  I think this is the first time an event of this scale is being held internationally.

“As you noted, we recently discussed bilateral relations in detail. In fact, we have no unresolved issues, just some nuances that need our attention. I think today we will discuss them and come up with mutually acceptable solutions,” Tajik leader was cited as saying.