DUSHANBE, June 28. /TASS/. Issues of closer cooperation in the defense sphere, strengthening the Tajik-Afghan border and other matters were among the topics Russian and Tajik Presidents, Vladimir Putin and Emomali Rakhmon discussed at their meeting on Tuesday, the press service of the Tajik leader said.

According to the press service, special attention was focused on the situation in Afghanistan and on the Tajik-Afghan border. "In this context, Emomali Rakhmon and Vladimir Putin discusses issues of closer cooperation in the sphere of defense, including in terms of military and military-technical cooperation and defense buildup, especially in what concerns the modernization of Tajikistan’s armed forces and strengthening the Tajik-Afghan border protection," it said, adding that the presidents also exchanged views on current international and regional issues.

The two leaders noted positive tendencies in bilateral relations over the 30 years after establishing diplomatic ties and stressed the importance of "maintaining regular trust-based political dialogue and contacts at the top and high levels."

The two presidents highly assessed the level of cooperation in the cultural-and-humanitarian sphere, in particular, in education, science, culture, and public health.

Putin arrived in Dushanbe on a working visit. This is the second offline meeting between the two presidents this year: they had talks in Moscow on May 16 on the sidelines of the jubilee summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). Apart from that, the presidents speak over the phone regularly. They have had six telephone talks this year.

The Russian president will stay in Dushanbe until Wednesday morning, when he will fly to Ashgabat to take part in the Caspian summit of the leaders of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan scheduled for June 29.

It is Putin’s first trip to a multilateral offline summit this year and his second foreign visit. In February, he visited China, which hosted the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Putin’s previous visits to Tajikistan and Turkmenistan took place in 2019.