DUSHANBE, February 3, 2009, Asia-Plus — President’s decision to attend summits of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the Eurasian Economic Community (EAEC) in Moscow that was made after a lot of to-ing and fro-ing confirms that reasons for the previous decision to cancel visits were far from just “technical,” independent Tajik expert Rashid Ghani Abdullo said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
According to him, the previous decision to cancel visit to Moscow was nothing other than response to comments made by Russian President Medvedev on the implementation of hydroelectricity projects in Tajikistan during his visit to Uzbekistan.
“Nothing principally new has occurred in the current situation that emerged in the country; the electricity supply situation remains as complicated as it was before,” the expert said.
On the sense of such a political step of the official Dushanbe, Mr. Abdullo said that it was obvious. “Time has passed when the country could be treated without taking into consideration its interests, when partners of Tajikistan could take back their promises or could cancel reached agreements without any detriment to their interests, including the strategic ones,” he said.
“The world has changed considerably in recent years, and place of Tajikistan in it has also changed,” said Rashid Ghani Abdullo, “Tajikistan now has strategic partnership not only with Russia. Its relations with the United States, China, and Iran could also be considered strategic. Moreover, Western Europe is also striving for reaching the same level of cooperation with Tajikistan.”
On the further character of the Tajik-Russian cooperation, the expert noted that it would depend, to a considerable degree, on “how much both countries really learnt from the crisis situation, in which they found themselves.” Meanwhile, he mentioned the situation when Tajikistan had been forced to revoke the Roghun hydroelectricity project contract with Russia’s RusAL aluminum company for known reasons.
“Prospects of cooperation between the two countries will depend on to what an extent the Russian side will take into consideration legitimate interests of its partner, with whom it has not had any serious problems during the post-Soviet period,” the expert said.
