On Thursday June 13, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon met here with Maithripala Sirisena, President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, who arrived in Dushanbe for participation in the fifth summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA).
According to the Tajik president’s official website, the two sides discussed the results of the first negotiations at the highest level that took place between the two countries in 2017 as well as state and prospect of further expansion of bilateral cooperation between their countries.
Rahmon, in particular, noted that Tajikistan attaches significance to expansion of friendly cooperation with the countries of the South Asian region, including Sri Lanka.
In the course of the talks, the parties reportedly discussed a broad range of issues related to cooperation between Tajikistan and Sri Lanka in energy, pharmaceutics and light industry, the launch of joint ventures and development of projects aimed at developing transport infrastructure and tourism in Tajikistan.
They also noted that Tajikistan’s access to Sri Lanka’s seaports and use of transit corridors could drive the bilateral trade between the two countries, the Tajik president’s website said.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka says Tajik President Emomali Rahmon paid a state visit to the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka on December 12– 14, 2016 Emomali Rahmon paid a state visit to the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka on 12– 14 December, 2016 at the invitation of President Maithripala Sirisena. During the visit, President Emomali Rahmon reportedly held official meetings with President Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Speaker Karu Jayasuriya in Colombo.
According to a joint statement on strengthening bilateral relations, the two leaders recognized the importance of increased and regular high level interaction and engagement, including at the senior officials’ level to promote and develop multi-dimensional bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and Sri Lanka. Towards realizing this objective, and to provide for structured and regular interaction between the two countries, the bilateral legal framework was formalized by signing the Memorandum of Understanding on Political Consultations between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Tajikistan.
The two leaders reportedly also agreed to optimize the new and emerging investment and trade opportunities in each other’s countries’ in the specific areas of finance and banking, renewable energy, including hydro-energy, light industries, apparel and textiles, agriculture and food processing, healthcare, information technology, transport logistics and tourism. In this context, the leaders emphasized the need to explore the establishment of a Joint Economic Commission at ministerial level to pursue and maximize business, trade and technical cooperation.
