Putin Plans Asian Tour with Trade and Political Agenda

Moscow, Feb 24 (Prensa Latina) Russian president, Vladimir Putin, will start Asian tour next Monday to Tadzhikistan, Kirguiztan and Kazakhstan with an economic and political agenda in bilateral talks, reported the Kremlin.

Putin will start tour in Dushambe, where he will discuss with his tadzhik peer, Emomali Rajmon, the strengthening of strategic cooperation, stop the reduction of trade and labour migration, indicated the presidential press service.

Twenty-seven percent of the economic activity of Tadzhikistan is related with Russia, largest foreign investor, in particjlar the Enterprise RAO EEC, with 500 million dollars in the construction of the hydroelectric plant of Sangtudinsk.

Both parts will look for solutions to reinforce trade after 2016 when it contracted by 15.5 percent, to total 688 million dollars.

Labour migration, with 870 thousand Tadzhiks in Russia, will be another issue to debate in the official talks. From that migration Tadzhikistan receives remittances for 1.9 billion dollars, one third of the Gross Domestic Product of the Asian country.

Another topic will be the permanence of base 201 of the Russian Armed Forces in Tadzhikistan.

Putin will then go to Kirguiztan, where he will analyze with his peer, Almazbek Atambayev, the economic cooperation after a reduction of the commercial exchange by 13 percent and the Kirguiz exports to Russia by 138 points.

From 2012 to 2016, Russia gave financial support to Kirguizstan for 225 million dollars, highlights the Kremlin's communique, to which Prensa Latina had access.

There is a development operating between both nations, to which Moscow has contributed 500 million dollars.

The same as Tadzhikistan, Kirguiztan will analyze with Russia the cooperation in the sphere of labour migration, as in this nation and Kazakhstan live 620 thousand Kirguiz citizens.

Putin's tour will conclude next Wednesday in Kazakhstan, second country after Belarus in the post-Soviet era with which Russia has the largest trade output. In 2016, it reached 13 billion dollars, despite dropping by 16.3 percent, compared to 2015.

The drop in oil prices and fluctuation of the currencies of the mentioned countries, impacted the volume of trade.

Russia and Kazakhstan, besides the energy sector and the aerospatial branch (rent of the Baikonur cosmodrome) , they cooperate in manufacturing the new helicopter KA-226T.

Also, Astana served as see of two rounds of talks sponsored by Russia, Turkey and Iran, among leaders of armed groups and the Syrian government.