Tajik President Emomali Rahmon has invited the Amir of the State of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani to visit Dushanbe for participation in a summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) that will take place in the Tajik capital in early summer this year.
Tajikistan’s Ambassador to Qatar Khisrav Sohibzoda met with the Secretary-General of the Qatar Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Ahmed bin Hassan Al Hammadi, in Doha on February 10.
Tajik diplomat handed over to him the written message from President Emomali Rahmon to Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani inviting him to participate in the 5th summit of CICA that will be held in Dushanbe in June this year, according to the Tajik MFA information department.
In the course of the talks, the two reportedly also discussed issues related to further expansion of bilateral political, economic, cultural and humanitarian cooperation between Tajikistan and Qatar.
Dr. Al Hammadi noted that cooperation with Tajikistan is one of priorities of Qatar’s foreign policy, the Tajik MFA information department said.
Qatari official said that Qatar highly appraises and supports Tajik leader’s initiatives aimed at providing peace, stability and constructive cooperation in the region.
Qatari Foreign Ministry says Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani received a written message from the President of the Republic of Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon, pertaining to bilateral relations and the ways to boost and develop them.
Diplomatic relations between the Republic of Tajikistan and the State of Qatar were established on December 13, 1994, and the Embassy of the State of Qatar started functioning in Tajikistan in November 2012. In July 2013, the State of Qatar appointed its Ambassador to the Republic of Tajikistan. Tajikistan opened its Embassy in the State of Qatar in December 2012. In May 2013, the Ambassador of the Republic of Tajikistan to the State of Qatar was appointed.
However, currently there are few substantive projects linking Tajikistan and Qatar. One is the Qatari Diar real estate company’s luxury residence complex the “Diar Dushanbe” and the nearly-completed monumental mosque in the Tajik capital. The mosque aims to be the largest in Central Asia and accommodate 115,000 worshippers.
During his visit to Doha in February 2017, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon and his team presented their Qatari counterparts with a laundry list of potential investment and spheres of cooperation: from hydropower and water to transportation, agriculture, light industry, mining, and scientific exchanges. The president also highlighted the country’s four free trade zones as open for Qatari business, and pushed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Qatar Stock Exchange and Tajikistan’s Central Asia Stock Exchange, established in April 2015.
On February 3 this year, Tajikistan and Qatar signed a government-to-government agreement on regulation of recruitment of manpower from Tajikistan. The document was inked in Doha by Ms. Sumangul Taghoizoda, Minister of Labor, Migration and Employment of Population of Tajikistan, and Mr. Yousef bin Mohamed al Othman Fakhroo, Minister of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs of Qatar.
Under this agreement, Tajik labor migrants can work in Qatar on the basis of a contract between employee and employer drawn up in accordance with Qatari legislation.
Qatari media reports say the agreement includes the procedures and regulations of workers recruitment, in addition to the formation of a joint committee of the two sides to be held annually, to facilitate the recruitment procedures between the two countries.
