Share this story!            

Zardari arrives in Dushanbe on 3-day visit

DUSHANBE: President Asif Ali Zardari was given a red carpet welcome when he arrived in Tajikistan on a three-day visit to hold bilateral talks with his Tajik counterpart Emomali Rahmon and for trilateral and quadrilateral summits with Afghanistan and Russia.

The formal welcome ceremony for Zardari would be held at the Qasr-e-Millat today (Wednesday).

Zardari would hold wide-ranging talks with the Tajik leadership for increased cooperation in various fields including commerce, trade, investment and energy.

The president would also hold trilateral and quadrilateral meetings with the leaders of Tajikistan, Afghanistan and the Russian.

The leaders of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Russia are expected to deliberate on the challenges being faced by the region in the quadrilateral summit meetings.

"The leaders of these four countries would deliberate on ways to promote regional and trans-regional cooperation to tackle the challenges of terrorism, drug trafficking and illicit weapons, etc," Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told APP on Tuesday.

The summit meeting would also strengthen trade and economic cooperation for the mutual benefit of the people in the region, he added.

During Zardari’s visit, the two countries are also expected to sign three agreements including the agreement for cooperation between the foreign ministries of Pakistan and Tajikistan for diplomatic training, a framework agreement between the two countries’ chambers of commerce and industry for trade promotion, and the exchange of instruments of ratification on reciprocity for the promotion and protection of investments.

To a question about the energy cooperation in the wake of the power shortage in Pakistan, Qureshi said the bilateral as well as trilateral meetings would also help advance the proposed 1,000-megawatt Central Asia-South Asia (CASA) project, under which a 700-kilometre transmission line would be established from Tajikistan to Pakistan via Afghanistan at a cost of $800 million. Qureshi said Zardari’s visit to Tajikistan would help revive Benazir Bhutto's initiative for strengthening relations with the Central Asian Republics (CAR) for economic development.

Pakistan, due to its geo-strategic location provides the shortest possible land route and seaports to the land-locked CAR including Tajikistan. Pakistan, he said, could export cement, construction material and consumer goods to Tajikistan. app

Home | National

Share this story!