Official website of the President of Russia

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President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon: Mr Medvedev, dear friends,

We are very pleased to welcome you to Tajikistan.

Mr President, we are particularly pleased that your visit coincides with an important event in the history of our relations: the launch of the Sangtuda hydroelectric power station, the flagship in our effective cooperation.

For Tajikistan, this has great significance not only as an improvement in energy supply, but also as the practical result of our strategic partnership.

We are certain that your visit today will be equally fruitful, and will provide new momentum to the cooperation between our two friendly governments and peoples.

Once again, welcome!

And it is my great pleasure to ask you, Mr Medvedev, to share your vision of the prospects for building our contacts in various areas.

President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Mr Rahmon, dear Tajikistani friends,

First of all, I would like to thank you for this opportunity to meet and discuss current issues. It is true that today’s meeting and visit coincide with this great event in Russian-Tajikistani relations, the launch of the Sangtuda hydroelectric power station, and the corresponding act of transferring custody that will be signed.

This indeed is a large, powerful, and significant project that will link our nations and our peoples for many years to come; I hope that this will continue to be a mutual project, bringing mutual benefits.

We have just held talks in a restricted format, where we covered all of most essential topics. The talks were open and honest, which is most important between friends. We also defined some sensitive issues.

This means that the momentum in our relations, in the contacts between out countries still remains. We meet regularly; I think that this is already my fourth meeting with Mr Rahmon this year. This is good. It means that when we need to discuss certain issues, we do not sit back and relax; we get on the plane and fly – Mr Rahmon comes to Moscow or another Russian city, or I come to Dushanbe, as I did today. This shows that our relations are strategic, well-built, and aimed toward the future. Thus, I am happy with the fact that we are completing work on such a large project. We have other projects ahead of us, and our colleagues have been working very well.

I hope that all of this will lead to good results, as that is what’s needed for our countries and our nations, in order to develop our cooperation in the future.

Thank you, Mr Rahmon, for your invitation and for the warm atmosphere of this visit, and thank you for the results that we have achieved.