DUSHANBE, December 5, 2012, Asia-Plus — Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, who is currently in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan to attend a meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of State, yesterday evening met there with his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov, the Tajik president’s official website reports.
The sides reportedly considered a broad range of issues related to bilateral cooperation between their countries in the fields of trade, culture and science. Rahmon and Berdymuhamedov expressed satisfaction with the current level of cooperation between Tajikistan and Turkmenistan in all fields.
They also discussed interaction between the two countries within regional and international organizations.
State and prospects of further expansion of regional cooperation were also among major topics of the meeting.
Today, Tajik leader is attending the next meeting of the CIS Council of the Heads of State in Ashgabat.
Leaders of countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) have gathered in Turkmenistan’s capital Ashgabat to discuss issues related to the strengthening of economic and security cooperation among the participating CIS member states.
Meanwhile Kyrgyzstan’s Foreign Ministry said President Almazbek Atambayev will not attend the Ashgabat summit because of what was described as Atambayev”s “busy work schedule.”
The CIS is a loose association of states and in no way comparable to a federation, confederation or supranational union such as the European Union. It is more comparable to the Commonwealth of Nations. Although the CIS has few supranational powers, it is aimed at being more than a purely symbolic organization, nominally possessing coordinating powers in the realm of trade, finance, lawmaking, and security. It has also promoted cooperation on cross-border crime prevention. Some of the members of the CIS have established the Eurasian Economic Community with the aim of creating a full-fledged common market.
