Afghan, Tajik Presidents Discuss Security

Tajik President Emomali Rahmon (left) with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai in Dushanbe.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has met in Dushanbe with his Tajik counterpart, Emomali Rahmon, to discuss joint efforts to bolster security as foreign forces in Afghanistan start to pull out next year.

Rahmon pledged at the meeting on October 21 that Tajikistan would help Afghanistan fight terrorism and extremism.

Reports from Dushanbe did not provide any details on the form that help would take, however.

The two presidents also discussed cooperation in constructing a railway line that links Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan, as well as cooperation in implementing the CASA-1000 project, which aims to export electricity from hydropower plants in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Three agreements are due to be signed during Karzai's two-day visit -- on mine clearance, the insurance sector, and on facilitating transit between the two nations.


Based on reporting by ITAR-TASS and Trend.az