DUSHANBE, March 17, 2010, Asia-Plus — The third two-day meeting of the Tajik-Afghan joint commission fore economic and cultural in Dushanbe is expected to result in signing of a final protocol today.
We will recall that Afghan delegation led by Minister of Economy Abdul Hadi Arghandiwal arrived in Dushanbe on March 15 to take part at the third meeting of the Tajik-Afghan economic commission that opened here at the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC) on March 16.
According to the Afghan Embassy in Dushanbe, the Afghan delegation will stay in Tajikistan till March 19 and during the visit, they are also scheduled to hold talks with Tajik Minister of Economic Development and Trade Farrukh Hamraliyev and senior representatives from the Tajik Ministry of Culture.
Afghan Deputy Minister of Economy, Ahmad Shahidi, told Asia-Plus that Turkmen natural gas and electricity deliveries to Tajikistan via Afghanistan, construction of a new rail link connecting Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Iran, canceling the visa regime and some other issues of cultural and humanitarian nature were among major topics of the meeting.
“The commission members are working in four groups that are discussing energy, trade, technical and social cooperation,” said the Afghan deputy economy minister, “Afghan Minister of Economy Abdul Hadi Arghandiwal and Tajik Minister of Transport and Communications, who are cochairmen of the commission, are expected to ink the final protocol today afternoon.”
Shahidi noted that Afghan-Tajik bilateral cooperation has been developing in recent years but it currently did not correspondent to its real potential. According to him, a two-way trade between Afghanistan and Tajikistan valued at 43 million U.S. dollars in 2009. This consisted of Tajikistan’s exports to Afghanistan estimated at 36 million U.S. dollars and Tajikistan’s imports from Afghanistan worth 7 million U.S. dollars.
