President of Tajikistan Emomali Rakhmon: Dear guests, I welcome you to Tajikistan. The official visit by Russia’s head of state to Tajikistan is an important milestone in the recent history of the relations between our two peoples, who are bound by close ties of friendship and mutual respect.
It is Tajikistan’s view that at this time when relations and the mix of different countries’ interests are globalising so rapidly we need to focus our joint efforts on reinforcing in every area the good traditions between our countries. I am sure that your visit will give new impetus to the cooperation between our two fraternal states and peoples and will strengthen the strategic partnership between our countries.
Once again, welcome! It is my great pleasure to ask you, Dmitry Anatolyevich, to share with us your views on the state and development prospects of our relations in different areas. You have the floor.
President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Emomali Sharipovich, we have just had detailed and constructive talks in narrow format, at which we discussed bilateral cooperation and a number of international issues, and we will now continue our talks in enlarged format.
There are a number of important issues I think we should discuss in this format. I am referring above all to economic cooperation issues, issues concerning the work of our big companies and the new projects that you and I discussed. We will also discuss the conclusion of a number of new agreements, speak about cooperation in the banking sector and in construction, in short, examine all the different issues that make up the fabric of our relations today. I think that our relations are growing very dynamically.
As we noted just before, our bilateral trade turnover will probably reach a figure of $1 billion this year. This is a good result but it is not the limit. It is clear that progress in this area will also depend on a successful outcome to our talks.
Regarding cooperation in the humanitarian sphere, I think that the situation is very good. The third forum of the CIS intelligentsia will take place in Dushanbe in September. This is a good event, an important event. We are also organising other humanitarian cooperation activities and working together in the education sector. I hope that the necessary decisions will be taken very soon on opening branches of Russian higher education establishments in Tajikistan. We are also ready to welcome students from Tajikistan in Moscow. Overall, the situation in this area is good.
Once again, I want to thank you for this chance to meet and hold these talks. I am sure they will bring tangible and visible results for our peoples.