DUSHANBE, February 11, Asia-Plus  -- Today morning, President Emomali Rahmon received visiting Senegal’s State Minister for Justice also Special Envoy of Senegal’s President, Mr. Serin Dion (phonetically spelled).  

Speaking to journalists after a meeting with President Rahmon, Senegal’s minister said that he had arrived in Tajikistan to extend an invitation to President Rahmon to take part at a summit of Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which will be held in Dakar.  

“Our president is convinced that Emomali Rahmon’ is aware of threats and challenges to the Islamic world and will participate in discussions to resolve them,” the minister said.  

According to him, they also discussed issues related to expansion of bilateral cooperation between Senegal and Tajikistan.  “Senegal’s ambassador to Russia also arrived in Tajikistan and he is ready to hold talks with high-ranking Tajik state officials to discuss priorities of bilateral mutually beneficial cooperation between our countries,” Mr. Dion said, expressing confidence that the Tajik president will initiate further expansion of cooperation between peoples of Africa and Central Asia.  

From Dushanbe, Senegal’s minister will go to Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.    

Senegal is scheduled to host the 11th Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Summit in Dakar on March 8-14.

The Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) and foreign ministers meeting will be held on March 8-11, followed by the summit proper on March 13-14.

Senegal was supposed to take over the OIC chairmanship from Malaysia in 2006 but it was delayed due to unfinished preparations.