DUSHANBE, June 30, 2008 Asia-Plus – Further interaction within the framework of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was discussed at a meeting of President Emomali Rahmon with CIS Executive Officer Sergey Lebedev in Dushanbe on June 28.
Lebedev arrived in Tajikistan to attend an international conference on the water-related disaster risk reduction issues.
Speaking to reporters, Lebedev said that he and President Rahmon had exchanged views on the conference.
According to him, Emomali Rahmon assured that Tajikistan has been and remains an active participant of all integration processes within the CIS area and Tajikistan is interested in expansion of economic cooperation with all the CIS member nations.
The CIS executive secretary noted that Tajikistan has played an important role in humanitarian cooperation. “The next CIS forum on humanitarian cooperation will be held in Dushanbe in September and representatives of educational and cultural facilities will take part at that forum,” Lebedev said.
According to him, they also discussed the necessity of preserving cultural commonality of the CIS member nations and reestablish cultural ties that had existed in the Soviet time.
Lebedev hailed the compulsory study of the Russian language at Tajikistan’s schools.
Touching up unsolved issues within the CIS areas, he pointed to the necessity of expanding regional economic cooperation, combating drug trafficking, developing political mutual understanding and overcoming some inter-ethnic frictions existing in the region.
