Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin paid a working visit to Kyrgyzstan on July 20-22 for participation in a meeting of the Central Asian foreign ministers that took place in the Kyrgyz resort city of Cholpon-Ata, according to the Tajik MFA information department.
The ministers represented Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Turkmenistan was represented by a deputy foreign minister.
The meeting participants, in particular, exchanged views on cooperation in combating terrorism, extremism and drug trafficking. They reportedly vowed to expand cooperation against international terrorism and religious extremism.
The ministers underscored that favorable conditions should be created to strengthen trade and economic ties and to boost trade.
Some Central Asian media reports say the sides raised the issues of regional security and joint fight against transnational challenges and threats. The participants welcomed the contribution of the Central Asian countries to stabilizing the situation in Afghanistan and expanding cooperation between Central Asia’s nations and Afghanistan. In this context, the Kazakh Foreign Minister, Kairat Abdrakhmanov, underscored the importance of holding the Regional Conference “Women Empowerment in Afghanistan” in Astana this September and proposed to organize a high-level OSCE conference on Afghanistan in 2019.
The foreign ministers stated the mutual opinion on the importance of organizing meetings in this format for developing common approaches to solving common regional issues and strengthening the five-party cooperation.
The Uzbek Foreign Minister, Abdulaziz Kamilov, invited the other officials to take part in a regional economic forum of Central Asian countries scheduled for October.
