Tajik, Afghan, Iran presidents to discuss regional situation.

5/8 Tass 59

DUSHANBE, August 5 (Itar-Tass) - The problem of security in the region
and issues of cooperation in the trade-economic and humanitarian spheres
will be discussed in Teheran on Thursday by Presidents of Tajikistan
Emomali Rakhmon, Afghanistan Hamid Karzai and Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Sources in the Tajikistani government's staff told Itar-Tass that Rakhmon
left for the Iranian capital in the morning.
The Tajikistani Foreign Ministry's information department stressed
that the trilateral format of cooperation of the Persian-speaking states
was formed in 2006 on the initiative of President Emomali Rakhmon. "The
main issues of the negotiations will be the situation in Afghanistan and
ways of post-conflict restoration of this country," the republic's Foreign
Ministry noted adding that "Tajikistan consistently takes the position for
the peaceful settlement of the Afghan problem, and there is no alternative
to it." The Tajikistani supreme leadership takes the same consisted stance
on the Iranian nuclear programme stressing "Tehran's sovereign right to
peaceful nuclear research."
The meeting participants will also discuss progress in the
implementation of the joint projects in the sphere of hydropower
engineering, transport infrastructure and the construction of a railway
that will link the three states.
Tajiks and Iranians have been connected historically and culturally
for thousands of years. Tajiks, like the majority of Iranians, are an
Iranian people and speak the Persian language, which is also the official
language of Iran. Tajikistan, due to historical and cultural ties with
Iran and the former Iranian empires, is regarded as a part of Greater Iran.
Afghanistan maintains an embassy in Dushanbe and a consulate in
Khorugh. The current ambassador is Sayed Mohammad Khairkhak. Tajikistan
maintains an embassy in Kabul and a consulate in Mazari Sharif. The
current ambassador is Farhod Hamroboevich Mahkamov. Relations between the
two countries were officially established on June 15, 1992. Tajikistan
opened its embassy in Kabul at the start of 2002. The consulate in Mazari
Sharif was also opened in November of that year. Current presidents
Emomali Rakhmon of Tajikistan and Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan first
officially met on the sidelines of the 2004 Economic Cooperation
Organisation summit held in Dushanbe. In April 2005 Rakhmon made an
official visit to Afghanistan. Several agreements have been signed between
Afghanistan and Tajikistan concerning energy. A $500 million dollar deal
was signed in September 2007 to create an energy connection from
Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Afghanistan. Both Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan
are trying to develop their potentially vast hydroelectric industry by
selling it to South Asia, and an energy link with Afghanistan is seen as
the first step in such expansion.
-0-ezh


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