Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Dushanbe and Kabul made a decision on expansion and strengthening of the cooperation in the field of security amid the withdrawal of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) from Afghanistan in 2014.

Tajikistan supports strengthening the strategy of combating terrorism, extremism, illegal drug turnover and other regional and international threats and challenges, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon said after negotiations with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai, who was on a visit to Dushanbe on October 21-22.

Given the possible development of situation after withdrawal of the international coalition troops in 2014, the Tajik side expressed readiness to expand cooperation with all bodies of the neighboring country, including in such fields as defense, security and borders.

Rahmon said that the border between the two countries should be a "border of friendship and cooperation".

During the talks, the sides paid a special attention to the development of the bilateral cooperation and searching ways to bring the bilateral relations to a new level.

"A special attention was paid to the implementation of strategic and very important economic programs, including construction of Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Turkmenistan railway and installation of Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (CASA-1000) electric line. The possibilities of implementation of the project on construction of China-Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Iran railway were also mulled," Rahmon said.

During the talks, Tajikistan expressed readiness to train specialists for Afghanistan in the field of development of the railway transport.

The Tajik president said that the sides expressed confidence that implementation of these projects will allow developing the mutual bilateral relations and regional cooperation to a new level.

According to Rahmon, these projects also aim the economic revival of Afghanistan, as well as strengthening stability and security not only in this country but also in the Central Asia in general.

The sides further exchanged views on activation of cooperation among the Islamic states and mentioned that the opportunities of these countries allow financing large economic projects in the Central Asia.

Karzai, in his turn, voiced Afghanistan's will to strengthen regional-economic cooperation, saying that implementation of project on the construction of Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Turkmenistan railway would serve for this.

"Afghanistan stands for development of not only bilateral relations, but also regional cooperation and will take all measures for their expansion," the Afghan president said.

Following the talks , Tajikistan and Afghanistan signed four new documents on cooperation, including an agreement between the governments of both countries on cooperation in the humanitarian mine clearing, protocol on introduction of addition to the agreement between the governments of Tajikistan and Afghanistan on state border checkpoints dated April 27, 2005, an agreement between the Finance Ministries of two countries on cooperation in insurance sphere as well as a joint declaration between Tajikistan and Afghanistan on the expansion and strengthening of bilateral relations.

In last 8-10 years, the trade turnover between the two countries has increased more than 100-fold and currently Afghanistan is among the top five of trade partner countries of Tajikistan.