DUSHANBE, October 27, 2008, Asia-Plus — Visiting His Royal Highness The Duke of York is holding meeting with President Emomali Rahmon today.
British Ambassador to Tajikistan, Mr. Graeme Loten, is also attending the meeting that is discussing issues related to expansion of Tajik-British cooperation as well as regional and international issues being of mutual interest, according to presidential press service.
After the talks, His Royal Highness will visit the UK Embassy in Dushanbe and then the Varzob district, where he will get acquainted with examples of the way in which the British Government worked with the Tajik people during the last difficult winter. At that time the British Department for International Development (DFID) gave a total of £3 million for emergency aid, much of it channeled through international NGOs. In Varzob this assistance was implemented by CARE International. In Varzob, HRH The Duke of York will visit the Varzob Maternity Center, which received a generator under the emergency program and then go on to School no 5 in Takob village, which received coal-burning stoves at the same time.
Today evening, The Duke of York will attend a reception to meet members of the British community and some successful young Tajiks before leaving for the airport and flying on to his next stop at Bishkek.
As it had been reported earlier, His Royal Highness The Duke of York, the second son of the British Queen Elizabeth II, arrived in Tajikistan for a short visit on October 26. His Royal Highness will be in Tajikistan for just 24 hours as part of a tour taking in Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and China. On this visit, he is accompanied by his younger daughter, 18-year-old Princess Eugenie of York. It is the second visit of HRH The Duke of York to Tajikistan.
His first visit to Tajikistan was in July 2006. The main focus of that visit was to open the building of the British Embassy in Dushanbe. He also held a meeting with HE President Rahmon and attended a special reception to mark the 80th birthday of HM Queen Elizabeth in the Ambassador’s residence. On the second day of his stay in Tajikistan HRH visited Jomi and Qurghon Teppa, saw an exhibition of the work of several NGOs, visited a mosque and opened the premises of an English language center in Qurghon Teppa, SWORDE-Teppa.
HRH The Duke of York is the second son of HM The Queen and the younger brother of HRH The Prince of Wales. He is presently fourth in line to the throne (after The Prince of Wales and his two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry). He has two daughters, HRH Princess Beatrice and HRH Princess Eugenie. Princess Eugenie, herself sixth in line to the throne, is accompanying her father on this visit to Tajikistan. She is 18 years old and has just graduated from school.
