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President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon: Mr Medvedev, members of the Russian Federation’s delegation,

It is my great pleasure to welcome all of you, our dear guests, to Tajikistan. We are always happy to receive you in our country.

I have no doubt that the results of today’s meeting and talks will be essential to expanding our relations of friendship, partnership and mutually beneficial cooperation between our nations, taking them to a qualitatively new level of development.

Today, Tajikistani-Russian ties are based on the principles of strategic partnership and encompass nearly all key cooperation areas: the political, economic, investment, trade, military technical, humanitarian, and many other sectors.

Mr President, before I present my vision regarding the current state and prospects of our bilateral cooperation, I would like to request that you share your views on this matter, and we will continue our talks.

Thank you.

President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Thank you very much, Mr Rahmon.

I would like to say that I believe regular contacts at the highest level between Russia and Tajikistan are a key factor in the development of bilateral cooperation. You and I have regular meetings in Russia, in Tajikistan, and in other states. And now, I am making an official visit.

We have just discussed priority issues in bilateral cooperation in the restricted format, and we reviewed all issues of great significance for the future of our relations. Overall, our delegation is ready to cover all the remaining issues.

In any event, we have been seeing positive momentum as of late. In 2010, the trade indicators grew – perhaps not as much as we would all like, but nevertheless, we experienced growth of more than 12 percent, and this positive momentum continues this year, judging by the development of our relations in the last six months.

Direct Russian investments into Tajikistan’s economy are also growing. We were recently able to achieve quite a lot – I am referring to overcoming the financial and economic crisis.

We are advancing cooperation through the intergovernmental commission, developing the contractual legal framework of our relations, and today, we will sign a whole set of major documents that will determine the parameters of our cooperation for the upcoming years, both in the security sector and in bilateral economic cooperation.

Thank you.

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