DUSHANBE, March 19, 2012, Asia-Plus  -- President Emomali Rahmon today morning departed for Moscow for a short visit.  He will attend a meeting of the Interstate Council of Eurasian Economic Community (EAEC) that is being held in Moscow today, a source in the government said.

According to him, State Adviser to the President for International Matters Erkin Rahmatulloyev, Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi, Minister of Economic Development and Trade Sharif Rahimzoda and some other state officials are accompanying Rahmon on this trip.

“The president will return to Dushanbe today evening because a new building of the National Public Library will be put in commission tomorrow and President Rahmon will hold a traditional meeting with representatives of the Tajik intelligentsia on the occasion of the Navrouz holiday,” the source noted.

The initial concept of the Eurasian Economic Community was first proposed in October 2000, as a successor to the CIS Customs Union, when Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan signed a treaty on broad economic and trade cooperation.  The organization was formally created with the ratification of that treaty in May 2001.  The initial five-member group was further expanded in May 2002 when Moldova and Ukraine were granted observer status, and again in April 2003, when Armenia gained observer status.  In January 2006, Uzbekistan joined EAEC.  But alter in 2008 Uzbekistan decided to temporarily suspend its membership.