DUSHANBE, March 18, 2013, Asia-Plus — Mr. Colin Roberts, Director, Eastern Europe and Central Asia Directorate, British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) arrived in Dushanbe today on a working visit.
According to the British Embassy in Dushanbe, this is Mr. Roberts’ first visit to Central Asia and it will last until March 20. He will hold meetings with senior representatives of the Tajik Government to discuss bilateral relations, the situation in Tajikistan, Central Asia and Afghanistan.
While he is in Tajikistan, Mr. Roberts will visit Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province (GBAO) and meet representatives of international donor community.
Mr. Roberts will also visit the OSCE Border Management Staff College and visit the UK Department for International Development (DFID) funded projects, to see the impact on economic development.
We will recall that according to some sources, the United Kingdom is currently considering several transit routes for the withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan. Official London has reportedly begun a negotiating process with Dushanbe on using Tajik territory for the withdrawal of British troops from Afghanistan.
British Ambassador to Tajikistan, Mr. Robin Jeremy Ord-Smith, met here with Tajik Minister of Transport Nizom Hakimov last month to discuss these issues.
The Ministry of Transport (MoT)’s press center reports the sides discussed issues related to signing of a government-to-government agreement between Tajikistan and the United Kingdom (UK) on transit route for the withdrawal of British troops and military property from Afghanistan.
The sides reportedly also considered the issue of speeding up the signing of a government-to-government agreement between Tajikistan and the United Kingdom on an air communications between the two countries.
Britain’s Minister of State for the Armed Forces, Nick Harvey, was in Tajikistan in March 2012 to discuss with Tajik leaders possible transit routes for the withdrawal of British troops from Afghanistan in 2014. Harvey told journalists in Dushanbe after talks on March 2, 2012 that a proposed route for the troops” withdrawal would go through Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, and therefore the cooperation between the three Central Asian countries is needed.
