Tajik President Emomali Rahmon held talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Qingdao, China on June 9 on the sidelines of the SCO summit.  

According to the Tajik president’s official website, Rahmon and Putin discussed the main directions of strategic partnership between their countries.  

They, in particular, discussed issues related to providing regional security, jointly addressing modern global threats and challenges as well as the current situation along Tajikistan’s common border with Afghanistan.

Rahmon and Putin also touched upon issues of military and technical cooperation between Tajikistan and the Russian Federation.  

Emomali Rahmon noted that Tajikistan highly appreciated the level of relations with the Russian Federation.  

“Prime Minster Dmitry Medvedev recently paid an official visit to Tajikistan. We held detailed discussions on all aspects of our trade and economic cooperation,” Tajik leader noted.

Vladimir Putin noted that strategic partnership between Russia and Tajikistan continued developing, according to the Kremlin.

“I am delighted to say that Russia remains Tajikistan’s main trade and economic partner ahead of Kazakhstan and China,” Russian president said, noting that a two-way trade between Russia and Tajikistan over the first three months of this year has increased by another 18 percent.

According to him, Russian companies have invested nearly $2 billion in Tajikistan’s economy.

“We are also modernizing your armed forces and training your military personnel.  A total of 500 Tajikistani servicemen are studying at Russian Defense Ministry academies, Putin said.