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Tajikistan President to meet PRC's DefMin to discuss stepup of military cooperation

DUSHANBE, March 31. /ITAR-TASS/. Matters aimed at stepping up military cooperation in the light of new global challenges and threats will be considered on Monday by Tajikistan's President Emomali Rakhmon and Chang Wanquan, Minister of Defence of the People's Republic of China (PRC), who is currently here on a three-day official visit, an official in the administration of the Tajik Head of State told Itar-Tass.

"On Sunday, the Chinese minister talked with his Tajik counterpart Sherali Mirzo to discuss in detail the situation in the republic and in the region, as well as at the border with Afghanistan," Faridun Makhmadaliyev, head of the Defence Ministry press service, said, for his part.

Makhmadaliyev said the sides had expressed interest in deepening and broadening interaction in the military and technical military spheres against the background of a threat to stability in the region after a withdrawal, planned for the current year, of the International Security Assistance Force from Afghanistan and a possible deterioration of the situation near Tajikistan's borders.

"On the whole, the Defence Ministry of our republic is satisfied with the level of cooperation with Chinese partners in rendering military and technical military assistance in the form of deliveries of uniform and technical means, worth hundreds of millions of US dollars, as well as the training of Tajik military specialists at the PRC's specialized institutions of higher learning," Makhmadaliyev pointed out.

On April 1-2, Chang Wanquan will attend a session of the Defence ministers of the member-countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which is to be held in Kundzhand, the administrative center of Tajikistan's northern Sogdian Region. A Russian delegation will be led by Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu. The participants in the session are to focus on enhancing interaction in fighting terrorism and trafficking in narcotics.