High-level four-power meeting in Dushanbe generates joint stand against terrorism

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DUSHANBE — On July 30, a meeting of the presidents of Tajikistan, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Russia generated expressions of readiness to develop mutual economic cooperation and jointly stand against terrorist threats.

Russian Federation President Dmitry Medvedev referred to the meeting in Dushanbe as a "symbol of trust" and expressed the hope that an outcome of it will be an improvement of the situation in the region. Asif Ali Zardari, President of Pakistan, noted that the region's peoples are hoping their leaders will be able to resolve accumulated problems.

In addition to a plenary session, the presidents also met in two-and three-party formats. After the meeting of the three Central Asian Republics, Tajikistan's President Emomali Rakhmon said that the parties expressed interest in developing further their trade and economic relations and uniting their forces to assist with maintaining security in Afghanistan. President Zardari expressed Pakistan's interest in a joint battle against terrorism, extremism and other negative modern developments. He referred to the meeting as "historic," claiming that it turned a new page in the relationships among the participating nations. He stated that the group had reviewed practically all joint projects being implemented among them to advance the national interests of each. Railways and road construction and the implementation of energy projects emerged as areas of top priority to the four nations. Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai noted that he fully supports joint projects as they will bring benefits in the future.

According to Tajikistan’s State Statistics Committee, the volume of trade between Tajikistan and Afghanistan in the first six months of 2009 reached almost US$40 million, a 75.8 percent increase over the same period last year. The volume of Tajik trade with Pakistan amounted to just $3 million, but that is 53.2 percent more than in the same period last year.