DUSHANBE, November 29, 2012, Asia-Plus — A planned meeting of Ms. Catherine Ashton, the EU’s High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy also Vie-President of the European Commission, with senior representatives of the Islamic Revival Party (IRP) of Tajikistan has been canceled.
The party representatives note that the meeting has been canceled most likely because her visit to Tajikistan that has started today morning is short. “However, Ms. Ashton will meet with representatives of our party within the framework of her meeting with representatives of civil society,” an official source at IRP’s head office in Dushanbe said.
We will recall that during her short visit to Tajikistan, the EU foreign-policy chief is scheduled to hold talks with President Emomali Rahmon and Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi. Preparation of a new strategy of the European Union for Central Asia is expected to be a major topic of the talks with high-ranking Tajik state officials.
Tajik experts and political scientists noted that Ms. Ashton would also discuss the human rights and religious freedom situation in Tajikistan with local activists.
According to Radio Liberty, Human Rights Watch had urged Ashton to use the tour of the region to raise human rights issues, particularly the jailing of rights activists. Ashton maintained that human rights are an important issue for the EU. “I always make sure that we weave into every conversation the issues of human rights. We may not call them that, we may not spell out those words, but they”re fundamental and part of the values of the European Union,” she was quoted as saying by RFE/RL.
