Tajikistan Extends Presence of Russian Military Base for 30 Years
Russia on Friday won an effectively free 30-year extension to military base it leases in Tajikistan to police that country's drug and crime-infested border with Afghanistan.
The agreement valid through 2042 was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit to the Tajik capital Dushanbe for the 60th birthday celebrations of Tajik leader Emomali Rakhmon.
The bases garrisoned by the 7,000 men of the 201st Motor Rifle Division are among Russia's most important foreign outposts due to their role in protecting the increasingly volatile ex-Soviet lands of Central Asia from the dangers of insurgency and organized crime.
"We are practically getting it for free," Putin's foreign policy adviser Yury Ushakov was quoted as saying by news agencies ahead of the signing ceremony.
Putin said the bases would ensure "the reliable defense of our mutual strategic interests and strengthen the security and stability of the Central Asian region."
Rakhmon for his part stressed that Russia had promised to pay for the Tajik military's upgrade and training in return.
Russia has pledged to supply the depleted Tajik forces with "modern types of weapons."
Mountainous Tajikistan's seven million people are collectively the poorest in the former Soviet Union and rely on migration to Russia for subsistence wages.
Ushakov estimated that there were 1.3 million labor migrants from Tajikistan in Russia who send home money equivalent to half of their country's gross domestic product.
The two sides also signed a new labor worker agreement whose details were not disclosed.
Moscow recently threatened to expel its Tajik workers during a row over two pilots that Tajikistan originally convicted but then released after finding them guilty of smuggling plane engines from Afghanistan.
Source: Agence France Presse
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