Chinese FM meets Tajik counterpart

CHOLPON-ATA, Kyrgyzstan, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin on Friday on the sidelines of the Meeting of the Council of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States in Kyrgyzstan.

Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said that in May this year, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon paid a successful state visit to China.

The most important outcome of the visit was the signing of the China-Tajikistan Treaty on Permanent Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation, which set a precedent in Central Asia, Wang said.

The two sides also issued the Joint Statement between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of Tajikistan on Deepening the Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership in the New Era, demonstrating their determination to jointly promote the building of a China-Tajikistan community with a shared future, Wang said.

The common task of the foreign ministries of the two countries is to translate the consensus reached by the two heads of state into concrete actions, make plans for exchanges at various levels, and promote deeper and more substantive cooperation in areas including energy, connectivity and counterterrorism and security, so as to deliver more cooperation outcomes benefiting the people of both countries, Wang said.

Muhriddin said Rahmon's visit to China this year was a great success and yielded fruitful results, further consolidating high-level mutual trust, and opening a new chapter in bilateral relations.

China has become Tajikistan's largest trade and economic partner, he said, adding that Tajikistan is confident in the prospects of bilateral cooperation.

Tajikistan is willing to work with China to fully implement the consensuses reached during Rahmon's visit, strengthen practical cooperation in areas including energy, jointly combat terrorism, and elevate the Tajikistan-China comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership in the new era to a higher level, Muhriddin said. Enditem