Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Tajik leader Emomali Rahmon during his visit to Tajikistan.
The heads of state are expected to talk until late in the evening. First, they will hold a protocol conversation, the beginning of which will be open to the media. The leaders will then continue their discussion over a working lunch, which will be informal and tie-free. The presidents are expected to stay in touch after that.
Putin and Rahmon may address both bilateral and international topics. In particular, cooperation in trade, economic, military-technical, cultural-humanitarian, migration and other spheres is on the agenda. The leaders will also set guidelines for further development of strategic partnership and alliance, given the fact that this year Russia and Tajikistan will celebrate the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations.
The parties will pay special attention to the situation in Afghanistan. As was noted in the accompanying materials to the visit, in view of the difficult situation in this country, the presidents will discuss "joint measures to ensure border security of Tajikistan," to prevent infiltration of radicals from the Afghan territory and issues of defense development. The heads of state are also expected to exchange views on other topical issues on the regional agenda.
The talks in Dushanbe will be the second face-to-face meeting of the leaders this year. The previous meeting was held on May 16, in the margins of the CSTO anniversary summit in Moscow. Back then, Putin and Rahmon also discussed bilateral issues, and the situation in the region, including security issues. In addition, the presidents are in constant contact by telephone: six such conversations have already taken place this year.
The Russian president will stay in Dushanbe until Wednesday morning, after which he will fly to Ashgabat. There he will address the Caspian summit, which will be held June 29 with the participation of leaders of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. This is Putin's first trip this year to a face-to-face multilateral summit and his second foreign visit overall. In February of this year, he visited China, where the Olympic and Paralympic Games were held. The Russian president last visited Tajikistan and Turkmenistan in 2019.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS