Foreign and Military Affairs

Sino-Tajik cooperation continuously expanded

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-11-24 16:12

DUSHANBE - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is scheduled to pay an official visit to Tajikistan on Wednesday and Thursday at the invitation of Tajik Prime Minister Akil Akilov.

During the visit, the leaders of the two countries will exchange views on bilateral cooperation as well as international and regional issues of common concern.

Frequent high-level exchanges of visits have helped advance bilateral ties to a new stage.

In 2008, Chinese President Hu Jintao paid a state visit to Tajikistan immediately after the Beijing Olympic Games.

Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon has visited China several times, most recently in 2008. During his visit to Beijing in 2007, Rakhmon and Hu signed a document on forging a cooperative relationship between the two countries.

In October 2009, Wen met with visiting Tajik Prime Minister Akilov in Beijing, and both sides vowed to expand bilateral cooperation.

In June 2010, Hu met Rakhmon in Tashkent on the sidelines of an annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), when both leaders called for further cooperation between the two neighbors.

"Since the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two nations in 1992, bilateral relations have witnessed steady and sound development with extensive high-level exchanges and increasing political mutual trust," said Cheng Guoping, Chinese assistant foreign minister ahead of Wen's visit.

In April, the two countries issued a border demarcation protocol, settling all border issues.

The two countries have also carried out close cooperation in the areas of economics and trade, telecommunications, mining, transportation, electricity, agriculture, infrastructure, education and culture, boosting the two countries' economic and social development.

Rakhmon said in his June meeting with Hu that, over the past year, bilateral cooperation in other areas had achieved rich results.

With China's assistance, Tajikistan had completed a number of major infrastructure projects, including bridges and an electricity transmission line connecting the power grids in northern and southern parts of the country, Rakhmon said.

Bilateral trade in the first 10 months this year totalled $1.08 billion, up 2.5 percent from the same period last year, according to China's Assistant Foreign Minister Cheng.

During his upcoming trip, Premier Wen will also attend the ninth SCO prime ministers' meeting in Tajikistan's capital of Dushanbe, Cheng said, adding that the two countries had supported each other in major issues of common concern and maintained close coordination within multilateral institutions like the UN and the SCO.

China and Tajikistan have been effectively guarding their own interests and making positive contributions to world peace and development, he said.

SCO member nations are expected to find common ground in promoting regional cooperation, facilitating investment, and enhancing the organization's institutional construction, Cheng added.

Founded in 2001, the SCO consists of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Mongolia, India, Pakistan and Iran are observers.