DUSHANBE, February 19, 2010, Asia-Plus — U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke is arriving in Dushanbe today evening.
Davlat Nazriyev, head of the Tajik MFA information department, says that tomorrow Mr. Holbrooke is scheduled to hold talks with President Emomali Rahmon. The sides are expected to discuss bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and the United, regional security issues as well as the current situation in Afghanistan.
Ambassador Holbrooke coordinates the interagency effort to advance the United States’ strategic goals in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
He was appointed as special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan on January 22, 2009.
Mr. Richard C. Holbrooke served as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, where he was also a member of President Clinton’s cabinet (1999-2001). As Assistant Secretary of State for Europe (1994-1996), he was the chief architect of the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement that ended the war in Bosnia. He later served as President Clinton’s Special Envoy to Bosnia and Kosovo and Special Envoy to Cyprus on a pro-bono basis while a private citizen. From 1993-1994, he was the U.S. Ambassador to Germany.
He has received over twenty honorary degrees and numerous awards, including several Nobel Peace Prize nominations. He was the Founding Chairman of the American Academy in Berlin, a center for U.S.-German cultural exchange; formerly President and CEO of the Global Business Coalition, the business alliance against HIV/AIDS; and former Chairman of the Asia Society. Previous NGO board memberships have included the American Museum of Natural History, the National Endowment for Democracy, the Citizens Committee for New York City, the Council on Foreign Relations, and Refugees International. He was Director Emeritus of The Africa-America Institute, was on the Advisory Board of MEMRI, was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and formerly a member of the U.S. Board of Governors of Interpeace, and a former Professor-at-Large, Brown University.
