DUSHANBE, September 18, Asia-Plus — Tajik President Emomali Rahmon today morning left for the Kyrgyz capital city of Bishkek on a two-day official visit.
According to Tajik presidential press service, a number of bilateral cooperation documents are expected to be signed during this visit.
As it had been reported earlier, foreign ministers of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan Hamrokhon Zarifi and Ednan Karabayev yesterday met in Bishkek to consider a package of documents that will be signed during Rahmon’s visit. The ministers also exchanged views on prospects of further expansion cooperation between MFAs of the two countries and discussed the results of work of the seventh Tajik-Kyrgyz intergovernmental commission for trade and economic cooperation that was held in Bishkek in early September.
According to some Kyrgyz media, Rahmon and Bakiyev will discuss bilateral cooperation and border problems today. “It is not ruled out that the meeting will consider the problem of disputed territories. In the near future we shall prepare a document that will ban construction on the territories where the borders have not yet been delimitated,” Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Ednan Karabayev was cited as remaking at a meeting with his Tajik counterpart Hamrokhon Zarifi.
According to Russia’s news agency Itar Tass, the two presidents will also discuss regional security and the fight against drug trafficking. They will also consider the initiative of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev on the creation of the Central Asian Economic Union, which he voiced during his visits to Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in May and September and which enjoyed support of the two countries.
According to Tajik MFA, five documents, covering cooperation in agriculture, economy, culture, politics, scientific and technical fields, are to be signed in Bishkek.
A two-way trade between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan in January-August 2007 has valued at $19.4 million, which is nearly 15 $million or 30.7 percent fewer than in the same period of last year, when it valued at $39.3 percent, Asia-Plus has learned at the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MoEDT).
Tajik-Kyrgyz trade in January-August 2007 consisted of Tajikistan’s exports to Kyrgyzstan estimated at $2.1 million and Tajikistan’s imports from Kyrgyzstan worth $17.3 million.
Over the report period, Tajikistan has exported mainly rough wools and furs, salt and explosive materials, while imports from Kyrgyzstan have included oil product, vehicles, cement, plastic wares, printing products, etc.
