DUSHANBE, September 13, 2014, Asia-Plus — On Saturday September 13, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping held official talks in Dushanbe.
The two presidents attended a joint press conference at the end of their meeting.
Speaking at the press conference, President Rahmon noted that the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping would give a new impulse to further expansion of bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and China.
“During the negotiations, we proposed to consider the possibility of joint construction of mining complexes textile parks, enterprises for producing building materials, and agro-industrial complexes in Tajikistan,” said Tajik leader.
He noted that cooperation in the field of renewable energy resources could also be promising.
Rahmon said they had also discussed issues related to regional security ahead of the planned drawdown of foreign forces in Afghanistan at the end of this year.
Meanwhile, Xinhua reports that Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed Saturday that his country and Tajikistan strive to increase bilateral trade to 3 billion U.S. dollars in five years.
With Tajikistan enthusiastic about China”s Silk Road Economic Belt initiative, Xi called on the two countries to seize the opportunity to boost cooperation in various fields.
China and Tajikistan, he suggested, should cooperate more closely in oil and gas, electricity, trade and transportation infrastructure construction, improve interconnectivity, and guarantee a smooth construction of the China-Central Asia gas pipeline.
China is currently Tajikistan”s third largest trade partner. Bilateral trade reached 1.959 billion U.S. dollars in 2013, up 5.3 percent from the previous year.
