Tajik President Emomali Rahmon yesterday discussed bilateral cooperation with has Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev in the Kazakh capital, Astana, on the eve of the first consultative meeting of heads of state of Central Asia.
According to the Tajik president’s official website, Rahmon and Nazarbayev discussed a wide range of issues related to the state and further expansion of bilateral cooperation between their countries.
"Kazakhstan has an important place in Tajikistan's foreign policy and its development and we are interested in further expansion of bilateral cooperation with Kazakhstan," Rahmon said.
Nursultan Nazarbayev said after the talks that there was “no unresolved issue between our countries," and called Tajikistan "Kazakhstan's most important strategic partner,” according to KazTAG.
The Kazakh leader noted that the past 25 years of Kazakh-Tajik ties have been a history of friendship and support, Nazarbayev said.
In the course of the talks, Rahmon and Nazarbayev also discussed cooperation between Tajikistan and Kazakhstan within regional and international organizations.
Their talks were followed by negotiations between the government delegations in an extended format.
Several cooperation documents were signed after the talks yesterday.
The interior ministers of Tajikistan and Kazakhstan signed an agreement allowing Kazakh citizens condemned in Tajikistan and Tajik citizens condemned in Kazakhstan to serve their prison sentences in their home countries.
Foreign ministers of the two countries signed a protocol allowing Tajiks to stay in Kazakhstan and Kazakhs to stay in Tajikistan for up to 30 days without registration and up to 90 days with registration.
The ministers of labor of Tajikistan and Kazakhstan signed an agreement on cooperation in the field of migration.
Emomali Rahmon’s official visit to Kazakhstan took place a day before a summit of Central Asian nations in Astana.
It will be the first summit of Central Asian leaders in nearly a decade though it is already clear that Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow will not attend. Ashgabat is sending a delegation led by the speaker of the parliament.
