DUSHANBE, October 26 (RIA Novosti) - Talks on a Russian military base in Tajikistan are going positively, the foreign minister of the Central Asian state said on Monday.
The 201st Base, Russia's largest ground base abroad, was established in October 2004, following a deal signed by President Emomali Rakhmon and the then Russian president Vladimir Putin.
"We [Russia and Tajikistan] have no claims or reproaches to each other on the issue, we are speaking about Tajik-Russian military and strategic partnership," Tajik Foreign Minister Khamrokhon Zarifi said.
He acknowledged the two countries honored their commitments on the base.
Last October, Russia submitted proposals to improve the base, Zarifi said. He added that two commissions involving the Russian and Tajik foreign and defense ministers had already held two meetings on the issue.
"We have considered two issues - either to continue using the base in the current form or on a paid basis," Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said last week, adding that it was too early to discuss specific figures.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Tajik counterpart Rakhmon held talks in the Kremlin on Thursday to discuss the possibility of the base's paid use by Russia only after 2014.
The base has about 7,000 personnel, comprising three motorized infantry regiments, a self-propelled artillery regiment, an anti-aircraft missile regiment, and a combat helicopter group.
