The meeting was held on the sidelines of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council and CIS Heads of Government Council meetings.
Mikhail Mishustin’s meeting with Prime Minister of Tajikistan Kokhir Rasulzoda
Mikhail Mishustin’s meeting with Prime Minister of Tajikistan Kokhir Rasulzoda
Mikhail Mishustin’s meeting with Prime Minister of Tajikistan Kokhir Rasulzoda
Excerpts from the transcript:
Mikhail Mishustin: Mr Rasulzoda,
I am glad we are meeting. I would like to take this occasion to pass on sincere greetings and best regards to President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon and Chairman of the National Assembly of Tajikistan and Mayor of Dushanbe Rustam Emomali from President of Russia Vladimir Putin and me personally.
I warmly recall the hospitality extended to the Russian delegation and to me personally on our visit to Tajikistan in March.
Our governments ensure the implementation of the agreements between our leaders, Vladimir Putin and Emomali Rahmon. We are giving priority to building up trade and economic ties and interaction, and protecting it from the illegal sanctions of the collective West.
Russia is Tajikistan’s leading foreign trading partner. Last year, mutual trade increased by 18 percent compared with 2021 and reached almost 105 billion Russian roubles, or more than 16 billion Tajikistani somoni.
Russian investment in the economy of Tajikistan is increasing. Domestic companies are actively working in the energy sector, digital economy, healthcare, tourism, and a number of other industries.
A lot of work is being done by our intergovernmental commission, the Tajik section of which you head personally. Marat Khusnullin heads the Russian side. I hope that all the decisions of our presidents are implemented, including within the commission. I am sure that this will be done at a high level.
We focus on cooperation in the cultural and educational sphere. This year, we have Russian Cinema Day and Russian Culture Days planned in Tajikistan. On 1 September 2022, five Russian-built secondary schools opened with instruction in Russian and according to Russian educational standards. And I also fondly remember my visit to one of these schools, the school named after Yuri Gagarin, which I visited during my trip to Dushanbe in March. I was most impressed by the school, my conversations with its students and teachers, and the spirit of friendship. Thank you very much for this project.
We also believe the expansion of interregional cooperation to be of great importance. More than 70 regions of Russia are developing business ties with Tajikistan. This contributes to the growth of our trade, and helps us attract investment and, of course, launch new joint cooperation projects.
We have a full agenda. Mr Rasulzoda, please, you have the floor.
Kokhir Rasulzoda: Thank you, Mr Mishustin. First of all, let me thank you for the warm welcome and excellent organisation of the events held as part of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council and the CIS Heads of Government Council. Today we visited the exhibition. We are very glad that, despite the new and existing sanctions, you have done a lot in almost all areas – both in agriculture and in industry. And import substitution in many industries reaches from 80 to 100 percent. We are, of course, happy to see this.
Above all, I would like to extend to you greetings from President of the Republic of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon.
You have recently visited Tajikistan. After your visit in early March, contacts between our agencies and business circles have stepped up significantly.
I will not hide the fact that Tajikistan expects to step up investment and industrial cooperation with Russia. In order to do this, our side has proposed a range of specific projects in the mining, metallurgic, oil and gas sectors.
I recently visited Kazan, where we discussed many regional issues. There is a desire to work between regions. Working groups have already been launched.
Just yesterday I had a meeting with Marat Khusnullin. We discussed bilateral relations. We agreed that on 19-20 June, Mr Khusnullin will visit Dushanbe. We will discuss all our issues with all our colleagues there again.
I am confident that our relations will develop for the best. And I am sure trade, which is growing by 20-30 percent almost every year, will increase significantly in the coming years.
As for the issues that we discussed with you – regarding Sangtuda Hydroelectric Power Plant – Mr Khusnullin and I agreed that we would discuss all these issues on our agenda. We will also discuss the construction of a Sirius school in Dushanbe and the allocation of land. A land plot for the Mayakovsky Theatre has already been allocated. We discussed this yesterday, and this issue has already been resolved.
I think we will do our best together. We will implement projects to upgrade the Tajik aluminum smelter and the BTC joint group of textile industry enterprises. After your trip, working groups from Rosatom started working there.
