Afghan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani is scheduled to arrive in Dushanbe tomorrow on an official three-day visit.
Tajik officials say the main purpose of the visit is for Afghan foreign minister to discuss a broad range of issues related to bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and Afghanistan with high-ranking Tajik state officials.
While in Dushanbe, Rabbani is expected to hold talks with his Tajik counterpart Sirojiddin Aslov and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon.
Meanwhile Tajik expert Qosim Bekmuhammad says Tajikistan and Afghanistan have many problems to resolve.
“First of all, Tajikistan and Afghanistan should pay attention to expansion of bilateral cooperation in the field of security,” Bekmuhammad noted.
With Ashraf Ghani coming to power, a certain decline in relationship between Afghanistan and Central Asia’s nations has been observed, the expert noted.
According to him new Afghan leader prefers to expand ties of his country with countries of the Arab world and the West.
“Kabul’s departure from the policy of cooperation with the countries of the region in all spheres, especially in the field of security, will bring benefit to the terrorist groups,” Bekmuhammad said.
“Today not only Tajikistan but also other countries of the region must collaborate with Afghanistan in providing regional security,” the expert stressed.
“Last year, the Taliban and the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group transferred their militants from the south to the north of Afghanistan, and thereby, they created real threat to the Central Asian countries,” said Bekmuhammad. “Under such a situation, the countries of the region must organize efficient cooperation with official Kabul in providing regional cooperation.”
Recall, Afghan foreign minister last visited Moscow. On February 7, he held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The two sides reportedly discussed a number of a number of topics, including the global challenges such as terrorism and drug trafficking as well as a number of bilateral cooperation matters.
Rabbani noted that Afghanistan was interested in increasing oil imports from Russia. Russia has been Afghanistan's largest supplier of refined petroleum over the years, contributing to roughly half of its imports. However, the value of such imports has been declining due to fall of oil prices with over $580 million in 2012 and just $233 million in 2014.
Afghan foreign minister also praised military and technical cooperation between Afghanistan and Russia. Moscow provides Kabul with needed training and equipment in the fight against terrorism, Rabbani said. He added that the military-technical agreement recently signed by the defense ministers of the two states would "further strengthen military to military cooperation."
The agreement has been reached in December and includes maintenance of Russian hardware adopted by the Afghan armed forces. The Afghan armed forces have Russian helicopters, including Mi-17, as well as old Mi-24s supplied from India.
Salahuddin Rabbani (born May 10, 1971) is an Afghan diplomat and politician who has been Minister of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan since February 1, 2015. He was Ambassador to Turkey from 2011 to 2012. In April 2012, it was announced that he was to chair the Afghan High Peace Council in its negotiations with the Taliban. Salahuddin's father was Council chairman and Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani.
He was selected as leader of the Jamiat-e Islami political party after the assassination of his father. On January 12, 2015, he was nominated by President Ashraf Ghani as Minister of Foreign Affairs, replacing Ahmad Moqbel Zarar. He was confirmed by the Afghan Parliament on 28 January and was sworn in on February 1, 2015.
