Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statement and answers to media questions at a joint news conference with Foreign Minister of the Republic of Tajikistan Sirojiddin Mukhriddin following talks, Moscow, February 13, 2025

Ladies and gentlemen,

The Foreign Minister of Tajikistan, my good friend Sirojiddin Mukhriddin, and I have concurred in the opinion that the level and content of interaction between our countries is in line with the nature of our alliance and strategic partnership, as follows from the strategic documents signed by our leaders and the talks that they regularly engage in to develop additional agreements and instructions.

The last time the presidents of Russia and Tajikistan met was in the Leningrad Region in December 2024, when they reviewed in detail the schedule of upcoming contacts at the top and high levels. Prior to the talks, the distinguished Minister informed us that distinguished President Emomali Rahmon accepted President Putin’s invitation and will attend celebrations dedicated to the 80th anniversary of our common Victory in the Great Patriotic War to be held in Moscow on May 9.

We reviewed our trade and economic ties and reaffirmed our shared commitment to expand them. Russia remains Tajikistan’s key trade partner and accounts for 20 percent of the Republic’s foreign trade. It is the second largest investor in the economy of Tajikistan. Despite the illegal sanctions that the collective West has weaponised in order to suppress the competition, we continue expanding bilateral ties in the manufacturing industry, agriculture, energy and the high-tech sector.

We believe that, once implemented, the 2024-2027 Economic Cooperation Programme that we signed last October will give an extra boost to our efforts to deep practical cooperation. Our respective agencies have drafted an action plan to increase mutual trade by 2.5 times by 2030. We have discussed concrete steps that will allow us to advance towards that goal with confidence.

We analysed the state of implementation of our agreements in the defence and defence technology spheres, and confirmed our readiness to continue contributing to the modernisation of Tajikistan’s armed forces. We see eye-to-eye when it comes to the understanding that Russian military base No. 201 in Tajikistan remains the key factor in ensuring security on southern borders of the CSTO area of responsibility.

We have reviewed the migration situation thoroughly. Russia is serious about every bit of migration-related information coming from Tajikistan and our other partners. We are doing our best to respond promptly and to provide exhaustive clarifications regarding measures taken by Russian law enforcement agencies and legislative bodies to ensure national security and to cut short related risks that have increased recently.

Our relevant agencies remain in close contact with our Tajik friends. Interagency consultations were held in late January to discuss the entire range of issues that go into regulating and regularising migration flows.

We welcome the cultural and humanitarian dynamism of our relations which stir keen interest on the part of the people from both our countries. Russia greatly appreciates the caring attitude of Tajikistan’s leadership towards the Russian language. We are grateful for supporting projects and initiatives to make the instruction in Russian widely available in Tajikistan. Our leaders have agreed that Russia will allocate funds to provide schools in the Republic with the Russian language textbooks over the course of the next five years.

At the request of our Tajik friends, beginning this academic year, we raised the annual government quota of scholarships for Tajikistan citizens studying at Russian universities to 1,000 spots, which places Tajikistan in the top tier of the countries that send their students to study in Russia.

We commend the progress of the Russian Teacher Abroad humanitarian initiative. During the previous academic year, 72 educators from Russia were deployed to Tajikistan, with nearly 100 assigned this year. This figure will continue to grow. Discussions focused on ensuring optimal conditions for these professionals.

We look forward to the prompt commencement of the construction in Dushanbe of an educational centre for gifted children and a new building for the Vladimir Mayakovsky Russian Drama Theatre. The inauguration of these facilities will represent a significant milestone in fortifying our cultural ties.

Concerning regional and international matters, we have agreed to sustain close coordination on major international platforms, including the CIS, CSTO, SCO, as well as the UN and OSCE. This year, the CIS chairmanship has transitioned from Russia to Tajikistan. We extend our gratitude to Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin for outlining Dushanbe’s relevant plans and priorities. On our part, we are prepared to offer Tajikistan’s chairmanship all necessary assistance in organising events related to the CIS.

We also addressed enduring issues of regional security. In this context, we evaluated the situation in Afghanistan. It is evident that a complex environment persists in that nation, impacting neighbouring Central Asian states, including Tajikistan. It is in our interests to maintain dialogue on this challenging issue within multilateral frameworks, such as the Moscow Format of Consultations on Afghanistan, the Afghanistan’s neighbouring countries mechanism, the CSTO, and the SCO. Recently, regional dialogue has been established via security council channels.

Given the continual increase in global challenges and threats, we explored opportunities for bolstering cooperation in counter-terrorism and combating illicit drug trafficking. We endorsed President Emomali Rahmon’s initiative to enhance the efficacy of information security efforts. We acknowledged the exceptional bilateral cooperation between Russia and Tajikistan on biosecurity. We concurred to actively promote this topic in a multilateral context within the CSTO framework.

We revisited our assessments of the situation in and around Ukraine. We conveyed details of the recent exchanges between the leadership of the Russian Federation and the United States – Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump – as well as on other levels. We expressed our appreciation to Tajikistan for its balanced and objective stance on Ukrainian affairs, which the Republic upholds in the UN and other international forums.

We signed the Programme of Cooperation between the Foreign Ministries for 2025–2026 and Protocol No. 2 to the Intergovernmental Agreement on the Terms of Establishment and Maintenance of Diplomatic Missions dated April 16, 1999.

I am confident that these documents will facilitate the advancement of a close and mutually beneficial partnership between our ministries, both institutionally and interpersonally. We hold this in high esteem.

Question: What joint measures are Moscow and Dushanbe taking to foster security cooperation, particularly in countering threats from Afghan territory and combating terrorism?

Sergey Lavrov: Our collaborative security efforts are multifaceted. The 201st military base in Tajikistan, which has been a dependable presence for a long time, ensures not only the security of Tajikistan but also the southern frontiers of the CSTO. In collaboration with our Tajik friends, we are striving to enhance its efficacy, including successfully developing its aviation component. There is a bilateral agreement on the modernisation of the armed forces of the Republic of Tajikistan. We anticipate accelerating the implementation of this programme.

In December 2024, the CSTO Collective Security Council summit adopted a programme to fortify the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan, now entering its implementation phase. In the imminent future, we will designate our executor for this multilateral document. With respect to the Afghan threat, we have effective mechanisms in place within the CSTO and SCO frameworks. Together with Tajikistan, we engage in several regional formats, including the Moscow Format and the neighbouring countries mechanism. Today’s discussions explored expanding our collaborative frameworks.

Question: This year has been declared the year of the 80th anniversary of Victory in the CIS. Could you talk about some joint events planned as part of the celebrations?

Sergey Lavrov: We have already touched upon this subject. The centrepiece of the project is certainly the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War.

The Victory Parade will be held, with all CIS countries and a number of non-regional leaders invited to participate. CIS countries have been invited to contribute their units to march in the Parade.

You heard today that President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon has accepted President Vladimir Putin’s invitation, and will travel to Moscow to attend the events. We expect to see Tajikistani military there as well and have them join our other allies to honourably commemorate the heroism of our nations – our fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers.

In addition, all of our foreign missions are setting up their own events jointly with Russian compatriots, whose commemorative projects such as St George’s Ribbon, the Immortal Regiment and the Garden of Memory are held regularly in their countries of residence. This is done in close coordination with the embassies and consulates general of our neighbours and allies. Numerous events have been scheduled in each country, in each CIS capital. There is an impressive list at the Victory Museum, which I recommend everyone to see. Taking part in these events will definitely be worth your while.

Question: Yesterday, after the phone call between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, are you more hopeful now that there can be real and fundamental change and improvement in US-Russian relations? And the Russian President said that, as part of any talks, the fundamental root causes of the Ukrainian conflict, the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, need to be addressed. What are these fundamental issues that Russia has that the Trump administration needs to understand in order for talks to be successful?

Sergey Lavrov: First, the very question – if we expect relations between Russia and the United States to improve after yesterday’s phone call – suggests that they were not normal during the years we lived with the Biden administration.

After Russia launched the special military operation, we were accused of all manner of evil. For years, no one had heeded our warnings concerning the root causes of this conflict, which I will talk about in a minute. Several agreements were reached with regard to saving Ukraine after the Nazi coup, which had been incited and financed by the West, but they were never implemented. We were left with no choice but to address the problem ourselves by starting the special military operation.

I was genuinely taken aback by the sudden suspense in which the whole world seems to be discussing yesterday’s telephone conversation and ensuing reports as some extraordinary event. Just look what President Biden and his team have made happen. Their European satellites have also abandoned dialogue and diplomacy as methods of engagement with the outside world, shifting instead to the language of threats and sanctions, arming the Nazi Kiev regime to wage war against the Russian Federation, and going as far as to send their specialists to target the long-range missiles they had supplied to strike Russian territory. You can see the heavy toll of the atrocities committed by the Ukrainian Nazis. Still, we have not heard any condemnation from the West.

From the way the world froze after Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin spoke by telephone, it is clear that the West has been taking for granted everything that is happening in Ukraine, what Vladimir Zelensky’s Nazi regime is doing. “So, this is the way you deal with Russia.” That is probably why many in the West, starting with the European Union leaders, were stunned by a normal, basic conversation between two well-mannered, polite people who do not put their differences aside. They have their disagreements, but they realise that politics is about sitting down and talking, and finding common ground.

Regrettably, the reaction in the West shows that there are practically no such people left there. Two well-mannered men have just shown the world how politics should be done. I just hope that this will make those who have forgotten how it is done come to their senses, and re-read their history books as well as political science books.