Rahmon discusses uranium mining, Sangtuda HPP 1 construction at meeting with Mishustin

MOSCOW. Nov 21 (Interfax) - The Russian government will swiftly implement every agreement reached at the Russian-Tajik summit, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said.

"At the government level, we will ensure the swift implementation of every agreement reached at the summit level," Mishustin said at a meeting with Tajik President Emomali Rahmon on Tuesday.

Russia is a leading economic partner of Tajikistan, he added.

"Investment cooperation has been actively developing. The volume of Russian investments in the Tajik economy has exceeded 148 billion rubles. A business forum held in Dushanbe in March gave a fresh impetus to the joint work," Mishustin said.

In turn, Rahmon pointed to "the existence of huge, unused reserves" in trade, economic and investment cooperation. "We should take measures necessary for using them more fully," he said.

The Tajik president mentioned rare earths mining among promising areas of cooperation.

"Actually, many are under the impression that Tajikistan is a backward agrarian republic. Yet Tajikistan did a lot to make the first nuclear bomb, to produce uranium. We have been working with Russia since then to bury those storages, the remains. There are many [uranium] deposits. The modern market is vast," Rahmon said.

He also mentioned energy cooperation, including construction of the Sangtuda HPP 1.

"As we know, certain outstanding issues remain. [...] We discussed the matter today in a narrow format [during negotiations] with Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin]. [...] We will discuss it again tonight, when we meet. We must put an end to it," Rahmon said.