Speaking in the meeting of the high-level delegations of Iran and Tajikistan in Dushanbe, Raisi hailed the favorable, successful holding of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit on Friday and the hospitality of the Tajik President Emomali Rahmon and government.
He welcomed the Tajik President's proposal to elevate trading and transfer of Iran’s private sector engineering and technical achievements to Tajikistan, proposing formation of a working group to review previous agreements between Iran and Tajikistan, and to find out why some of them have not been implemented or were slow in action.
Mentioning that expansion of ties with the countries in the region as a foreign policy priority of the new administration, Raisi said that Iran would leverage its capacities in transportation and accessibility to international waters in line with expansion of ties with friend and neighbor countries.
Elsewhere in the meeting, President Rahmon described Raisi’s trip to Tajikistan a historical visit and expressed regret that trading between Iran and Tajikistan has decreased to 57 million dollars a year, despite 160 cooperation documents signed in the past.
He expressed hope, however, that the two countries can achieve the 500-million-dolar target with increasing contacts and meetings of officials.
We hope that the road map of expansion of ties would be finalized soon and the two nations could implement it by forming investment council and joint specialized entities, Rahmon underscored.
He also said that Tajikistan was seriously interested in using Chabahar and Bandar Abbas ports in south Iran through ground and railroads.
The Tajik president urged launching of regular, direct flight between Iran and Tajikistan, Iran’s participation in oil and gas exploration projects in Tajikistan, and expansion of scientific, cultural, and tourism ties in-between.
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