SOCHI, May 26 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Friday with his Tajik counterpart, Emomali Rakhmonov, to discuss economic cooperation and mutual efforts in the fight against drug trafficking, particularly from Afghanistan.
Russia and Tajikistan signed 14 agreements covering various spheres during Putin's visit to Tajikistan in 2004.
"The [two] heads of state will discuss the development of strategic partnership between the two countries," a Kremlin source said. "The talks will focus on prospects for economic cooperation and interaction in the political and military spheres."
At their meeting in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Putin and Rakhmonov will review the involvement in projects in Tajikstan of Russian companies, including electricity monopolist Unified Energy System (UES), aluminum giant RusAl, and energy behemoth Gazprom.
On March 28, Gazprom and Tajikistan signed a memorandum on the creation of an oil and gas joint venture to develop four gas fields in the Central Asian country - Sarikamysh and Rengan in the west, and Sargazon and Olimtoi in the south. Proven gas resources in Sarikamysh and Rengan total 40 billion cubic meters and Sargazon 30 billion, while the Olimtoi deposit has yet to be prospected.
Another key theme of Friday's talks will be regional security in Central Asia, including the situation in Afghanistan and joint efforts to fight drug trafficking across the Afghan-Tajik border, the source said.
"The sides will focus on cooperation in the fight against the drug threat," he said.
The secretary of Russia's Security Council, Igor Ivanov, said May 11 that the flow of drugs from Afghanistan had been increasing, and that Russia and its partners should step up efforts to counter this trend, including within the framework of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a regional security body comprising Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Armenia.
