NEW YORK, March 24, 201, Asia-Plus — Tajik President Emomali Rahmon has been honored a Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Award for his commitment to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal for drinking water,
Accepting the award on behalf of President Emomali Rahmon, Tajik Prime Minister Oqil Oqilov said at the UN Headquarters in New York on March 23 that Tajikistan believed that the Goals were achievable and, to that end, the international community needed to consolidate and enhance its efforts, with the United Nations acting as the central and coordinating body in those efforts.
Tajik PM said it was imperative to work out a complex approach towards addressing the issues of eliminating poverty; improving the existing methods of financing for development; ensuring predictability and stability of the official assistance for development; resolving demographic problems; mitigating the climate change impact; and reducing natural disaster risk. Assistance in the implementation of national development strategies needed to be made a major priority when rendering assistance and support to the developing countries, he stated.
Oqilov told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference that, despite the financial, energy and other difficulties his country faced, the Government was determined to overcome its problems and gradually utilize the entire potential of the country for achieving the global development goals on a timely basis.
Expressing appreciation to the Millennium Development Goals Award Committee for presenting the Tajik leader with the Millennium Development Goals Special Achievement Award, the Prime Minister said that it was refreshing to know that the leadership of the President on water and power resource management had been recognized at the international level. He said he was also thankful to the South-South news company for its worthy contribution to the achievement of the MDGs and use of information and communications technology as a means towards development.
He noted that Tajikistan was one of the first to have developed, in cooperation with United Nations agencies, its own national development strategy based on the Goals, thus making Tajikistan a pilot country for achieving the Goals. Implementation of the strategic document that set out the State’s development priorities remained a key issue that topped the Government’s agenda.
During the press conference, journalists managed to ask Tajik PM about a sharp chill in Tajik-Uzbek relations.
Asked whether he believes Uzbekistan’s claims that rail delays (some 1,000 cargo cars with building materials, aluminum ore, diesel fuel and aviation kerosene for Tajikistan have been stranded on Uzbek territory) have allegedly been caused by technical problems, Mr. Oqilov said that those claims were lame excuses. According to him, the Uzbek railroads are in satisfactory condition to allow for the transportation of cargo trains without hindrance.
“The blockade is depriving many Tajik farmers of fuel just as the seed-planting season approaches.” Oqilov said, noting that 70 percent of Tajikistan’s population lives in rural areas and because of those rail delays Tajik farmers cannot receive fuel in proper time.
He noted that various air companies operated regular flights to Tajikistan and they should refuel at the country’s airports.
Besides, products of Tajik aluminum smelter account for more than 70 percent of Tajikistan’s exports, while cargo cars with aluminum ore have been stranded on Uzbek territory, Mr. Oqilov said.
Tajik PM noted that Uzbekistan claimed that its rail lines have allegedly been damaged by mudslides, however, inspections revealed that no serious damage had been caused to Uzbekistan’s rail lines and the passage of cargo cars could have been resumed without difficulty. “That is why these claims are lame excuses,” Oqilov said.
The actual reason for the rail delays is of water-and-energy nature. Oqilov stressed that providing access to energy, particularly during autumn-winter period is a serious and if it could have been possible to solve such issues in the Central Asian region in a civilized manner this problem would had been solved without any difficulties. “To compensate energy shortage in autumn-winter period, Tajikistan every year concluded an agreement on Turkmen electricity deliveries, but Uzbekistan last year did not allow delivering Turkmen electricity to Tajikistan via its power systems,” Oqilov said, noting that Tajikistan now can compensate the energy shortage only by developing renewable energy sources, in particular, by developing its hydroelectric potential. He stressed that Tajikistan was still constructing only those power stations, construction of which had begun in the 1980s already.
According to him, implementation of the Roghun hydroelectricity project will not only cover Tajikistan’s electricity deficiency, it will also satisfy needs of the region, specifically Afghanistan.
Uzbekistan claims that the Roghun project will allegedly damage the water resources distribution in the region but it is not so, Tajik PM said. “The volume of the reservoir powering the Roghun HPP will be 13 billion cubic meters of waters and this reservoir will not fill to full capacity in one or two years, it will take several decades,” said Oqilov, “Therefore, all these water-and-energy problems may be solved in a civilized manner for the benefit of all Central Asian peoples.”
Asked whether the United Nations could play a significant role in settlement of disputes over the water resources distribution, Oqilov said, “Of course it can. The United Nations is an authoritative organization and there are its agencies that are directly active in Tajikistan and other countries of the region. These agencies could participate in negotiations on discussion of these issues.”
Asked about the present level of relations between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, Oqilov said, “We are taking all measures to improve relations with Uzbekistan, because it is our neighbor.” However, Tajik PM did not say what measures Tajikistan will take if economic blockade continues, but he stressed that the sides must resume the negotiating process.
In the meantime, according to unofficial sources, Tajik PM discussed the present crisis in Tajik-Uzbek relations with the high-ranking UN officials, including the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his deputy, and asked them to provide assistance with speedy settlement to this crisis.
