Connection between leaders elevates Tajikistan relations

The meetings between the heads of state has helped lift the relationship between China and Tajikistan to a higher level, according to the ambassador of Tajikistan to China.

Chinese President Xi Jinping met his Tajik counterpart Emomali Rahmon three times in 2017 - at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in Astana, Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing and BRICS Summit in Xiamen, Fujian province.

The two governments signed a program for cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative during Xi's meeting with Rahmon in Xiamen in September, according to Parviz Davlatzoda, the top Tajik diplomat in China.

The meetings between Xi and Rahmon contributed to a higher level of trust and cooperation between the two countries on security, economic and humanitarian fields and better coordinated strategic collaboration and interaction.

They also helped elevate bilateral relations to a higher level of comprehensive strategic partnership, the ambassador said.

Tajikistan was the first country to sign a memorandum with China about the joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative in 2014. The country expects the joint program to be able to facilitate its own economic growth.

Davlatzoda believed that the bilateral relationship was friendly and beneficial to both sides.

"The trade between Tajikistan and China was about $980.5 million in the first nine months in 2017, and it exceeded $1 billion by the end of the year," he said.

Davlatzoda said he was convinced the pace of constructive relations between the two countries will be maintained in 2018, and this relationship will be filled with a number of political and economic events.

Ding Peihua, a researcher at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of International Relations, said the Belt and Road Initiative is of tremendous significance to Tajikistan and other Central Asian countries.

"These countries, most of which are landlocked, were eager to have a better development after their independence, and the Belt and Road Initiative has offered them opportunities," he said.

Yang Cheng, professor of the School of International Relations and Public Affairs at Shanghai International Studies University, said cooperating with the world's second largest economy plays a significant role to sustain development in Tajikistan.

He said the initiative is basically an international platform of both bilateral and multilateral cooperation with the principle of achieving shared growth through discussion and collaboration.

"Therefore, in the initiative, China will value the interests of the Central Asian partner and share benefits of it," Yang said.

Li Jianmin, a researcher at the Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, agreed, saying that infrastructure connectivity, industrialization and improvement of living standards have attracted Central Asian countries to join the initiative.

Li said China has become the largest investment country to Central Asia thanks to the initiative.

renqi@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 01/18/2018 page12)