05.07.2017, Dushanbe city

Distinguished Mass Media Representatives,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

At the outset, in your presence, I would like to once again offer my welcome to my esteemed friend and brother, H.E. Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, and his Delegation.

I also would like to avail myself of this opportunity to extend our congratulations to our Pakistani friends on their accession to Shanhai Cooperation Organization.

We are plased of the continued political ties between Tajikistan and Pakistan, particularly at high level.

This visit of the Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, His Excellency Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, which is taking place in a milestone period of the contemporary history of our countries’ cooperation, i.e. 25th Anniversary of the establishment of our countries’ diplomatic relations, is of particular importance for us.

It is my firm belief that the outcomes of our today discussions held in a warm atmosphere of full mutual understanding, will further strengthen our friendly bilateral relations and turn into the factor of expansion of all areas of cooperation between Tajikistan and Pakistan.

Both Parties believe that comprehensive and constructive cooperation fully meets the long-term interests of the peoples of our countries. At the same time I have to emphasize that it will give a serious impetus to boosting regional integration and strengthening of peace and stability in the wider Central and South Asia. This point is outlined in the Joint Declaration.

We highly commend the current political support and trust between our two countries. In our view, continued and comprehensive dialogue can further serve as a driver of our multidimensional cooperation.

At this stage it would be reasonable to expand the areas of economic cooperation through continuing effective operation of our Joint Intergovernmental Commission.

During our high level meeting we discussed a range of bilateral trade and economic, research , technical and cultural cooperation comprehensively. We outlined about the huge untapped potential and resources for our mutually beneficial cooperation in all areas. In this regard, we particularly emphasized the importance of expansion of economic cooperation areas and content.

With a view to facilitating transportation services between the two countries and within the region, we emphasized the need to finalize the Agreement on bilateral transit trade cooperation at the earliest possible.

We hope that the investors from the fraternal country of Pakistan will proactively join Tajikistan’s free economic zones and participate in implementation of large and medium scale projects.

This particularly relates to industry, energy, energy and transport infrastructure, tourism, education and healthcare development programs.

One of the regionally important projects critical for the Central and South Asia countries is CASA 1000.

Tajikistan is a landlocked country.

In this context, I would like to reiterate that we are keen to use the opportunities provided by Pakistan’s seaports and existing transit networks to expand trade at the regional level. We also attached a particular attention to the expansion of cultural and people-to-people cooperation. In this regard, the Tajik side referred to promising prospect and importance of studying and implementation of joint projects in education and healthcare and expansion of research and technical cooperation.

We exchanged in views on a wide range of topical regional and international issues.

In this regard, we also particularly focused on exploring the effective ways and means of expansion of multifaceted cooperation and their further development, including within the UN, SCO, ICO and ECO.

The Afghan case was one of the core issues in our discussion on the current situation in the region. Normalization of the situation in Afghanistan and revival of full-fledged peace and stability in this neighboring country is critical for our states. We decided to have deeper and more effective bilateral and multilateral coordination and cooperation with a view to promoting the process of revival of sustainable peace and stability in this country.

The issues of counteraction to terrorism and extremism, illicit drug trafficking and other forms of transnational organized crime, which cause threat to the security of our countries and the entire region, were also a central point of our elaborations. We acknowledged that deepeer coordination of the operations of special services and other relevant agencies of our countries is the requirement of the contemporary timebeing.

Tajikistan expresses its full satisfaction with the process and outcomes of the official visit of the Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan H.E. Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and considers it as a new step towards expansion of friendly relations and mutually beneficial cooperation between our countries.