DUSHANBE, July 16, 2008, Asia-Plus — Outgoing German Ambassador to Tajikistan, Mr. Rainer Muller, conferred here today with President Emomali Rahmon at the end of his tenure to Tajikistan. State and prospects of Tajik-German relations were a major topic of the meeting.
Following the meeting with President Rahmon, Mr. Muller told journalists that in the course of the talks he had noted that German has been and will remain one of main partners of Tajikistan. Germany was the first among the Western European countries to open its diplomatic mission in Dushanbe and it is the first European country to build its embassy here, the German ambassador said.
According to him, President Rahmon expressed gratitude to Germany for assistance provided to Tajikistan, marking out the project for rehabilitation of open feeder transformers at the Norak hydroelectric power station. “It is one of projects being implemented by Germany in Tajikistan and it is of significant importance,” Rainer Muller said.
The German ambassador also reminded that on the instruction of Germany’s MFA the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) had conducted a survey for construction of the Zarafshon hydropower plant (HPP) in northern Tajikistan.
“According to the survey, construction of the hydropower plant on the Zarafshon River will not affect the irrigation system in Uzbekistan,” the German diplomat said, adding that they hope the results of this survey will persuade Uzbekistan not to resist the issue of Tajikistan’s constructing hydropower plants on the Zarafshon River.
Mr. Muller also noted that President Rahmon intends to pay visits to Belgium and Germany. He added that President Rahmon also conveyed invitation to German Federal President to visit Tajikistan.
Asked about bilateral economic relations between the two countries, Mr. Muller noted that Germany and Tajikistan have excellent political and good economic relations.
“As German Ambassador I did my best to attract German economy to Tajikistan,” said he German diplomat, “We organized three visits of German entrepreneurs here and specific negotiations to discuss investment attraction issues were conducted.” “It is necessary to continue this work; however, implementation of projects is concern of private business.”
