Tajik Leader Upbeat on Chinese Counterpart’s Future Visit, Praises Russia

Text of report by corporate-owned Russian news agency Interfax

Dushanbe, 22 July: “The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has demonstrated specific results in the years of its existence, and its future is cloudless,” Tajik President Emomali Rahmon said in an interview with the Chinese media the day before a meeting of the SCO member states’ foreign ministers [scheduled for 24 July] and a visit by the Chinese president to this republic [as published; the visit is scheduled for 28 August 2008].

A SCO summit is scheduled for 28 August of this year.

“Tajikistan is confident in the SCO’s prospects. These prospects are based on specific results which have been achieved jointly in a short time,” Rahmon has been quoted by his press service as saying.

“It is Dushanbe where the SCO was set up in 2000 from the `[former] Shanghai five’. The scheduled summit will give a powerful impetus to the development of economic relations,” the Tajik leader said.

It is expected that the leaders of the SCO member countries – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – will attend the summit in Dushanbe. The leaders of four countries which have the observer status at the SCO, India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan, and the Afghan and Turkmen presidents have also been invited to the summit.

In the interview with journalists, Rahmon described Russia as Tajikistan’s natural partner.

“Russia is Tajikistan’s natural strategic partner. This country is supplementing the allied military and political relations between the two countries and resolving emerging problems with its participation in Tajikistan’s economy,” the republic’s president said.

At the same time, Rahmon also pointed to the importance of developing Tajik-Chinese relations. China is second only to Russia in the volume of investments in Tajikistan’s economy, but Chinese companies prefer bringing their own workers to facilities rather than hiring the locals, as Russians do.

“Several important documents on cooperation will be signed during the state visit by the chairman of the People’s Republic of China to Tajikistan, which will relate to the construction of hydraulic engineering installations and mineral mining, particularly oil and gas, as well as the fields of communications, agriculture and industry,” Rahmon said.

Originally published by Interfax news agency, Moscow, in Russian 1600 22 Jul 08.

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