NEW DELHI, Apr 13:
Vice President Hamid Ansari will discuss ways to further the country’s trade and defence ties and other bilateral issues with Tajikistan during his three- day “goodwill” visit to the central Asian nation beginning tomorrow.
This is the first ever visit by an Indian Vice President to Tajikistan, a hydrocarbon and minerals-rich nation.
During his visit, Ansari will hold high-level talks with Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon and its Prime Minister, Defence Minister and Minister of Economic Development and Trade, among others, to give fresh impetus to bilateral relations.
“Tajikistan has immense geo-strategic significance. It has a border with China of 520 km. It has a border with Afghanistan of 1,420 km. This is a very porous border and adds to the geo-strategic significance of the region.
“The Afghan-Wakhan corridor is 16 km, which is the least distance between Tajikistan and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK),” Ajay Bisaria, Joint Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, said.
Both the countries share “close and cordial” relations since two decades of Tajikistan’s independence, he said.
During the visit, there will be discussions on opening trans-Afghan corridor to facilitate easy movement of goods from inside and outside the land-locked country, which is surrounded by mountains.
He said the existing route to trade is via Iran, which is both “time-consuming and costly”.
“Level of trade was low mainly due to difficulty in transportation. We are also in talks for trans-Afghan corridor which will give us special access to Tajikistan. In terms of trade for 2012, trade figures from Tajikistan say it was USD 27 million, which is extremely low,” Bisaria said.
On expected deliverables of the visit, he said, “Visits of Vice Presidents are normally goodwill visits and we see them as high level continuation of political dialogues with very close strategic partners in central Asia. Normally, during these visits, we do not have deliverables like agreements”.
Diplomatic relations between the two nations were established in 1992 following Tajikistan’s independence in 1991 after dissolution of the Soviet Union.
In May 1994, India opened its diplomatic mission in Dushanbe and Tajikistan opened its embassy in New Delhi in June 2003.
Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited Tajikistan in 2003. Former President Pratibha Patil had paid a visit to the central Asian nation in September 2009.
Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon has been a regular visitor to India. He has visited India five times — 1995, 1999, 2001, 2006 and in September 2012.
During the last visit by Rahmon, both the nations had inked six pacts in several areas including business and trade, health, culture, sports and education.
Ansari, a former diplomat, has also served in central Asia. “He (Ansari) is an expert in the region. He has met most of the leaders in central Asia. He has personal equation with most of the leaders there…This will certainly come into play during the visit,” Bisaria said.
India and Tajikistan has a working group on counter- terrorism.
“Tajikistan is extremely concerned about the situation in Afghanistan. It has 1,420 km border with Afghanistan. A very porous border… We have a counter-terrorism working group. We will certainly have discussions on Afghanistan and the situation which may arise after 2014 when international security forces withdraw from there,” he said.
The Vice President will be accompanied by his wife Salma Ansari, Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing Industries Tariq Anwar, Members of Parliament from Rajya Sabha M S Gill (Congress), G N Ratanpuri (Jammu and Kashmir National Conference), Chandan Mitra (BJP) and Lok Sabha MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal (Shiromani Akali Dal). (PTI)
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