Tajik President Emomali Rahmon attended the first US-Arab-Islamic Summit hosted by Riyadh on May 21.  

In his address at the Summit, President Emomali Rahmon focused on building peace, stability and security in the region.

Rahmon noted that building peace, stability and security in the region and the entire world was a key to promote a process of sustainable development.

“An unprecedented wave of terrorism and extremism urges us all to seek for the most efficient ways and “road maps” to eliminate sources of its political, military and financial support,” Rahmon said.

According to him, pursuance of “double standards” policy is one of the elements preventing implementation of overall common efforts.

“Thereby, radical and violent groups benefit from the support of so called public foundations and organizations and even countries,” said Tajik leader.  “Consequently, these threats and challenges have extended geography of their distribution in the most horrific ways.”

Rahmon noted that threats and challenges provoked an extinction of whole states, led to a death of hundreds of thousands of people and caused an unprecedented demolition across many countries and territories.   

It is a matter of deep concern that attempts of politicizing and abuse (misuse) of immaculate name of the holy Islam religion provoked the growth of Islamophobia and emergence of hatred towards Muslims, Rahmon said.

“I in this regard reiterate that terrorist and extremist has neither homeland nor nation and nor religion,” he said, noting that security challenges are growing in the region under the influence of the current instability.

“Stability and security in Central Asia mostly linked with and depends on the situation in Afghanistan,” said the president. “We support constructive efforts of the international community and the Government of neighboring Afghanistan aimed at building lasting peace and genuine stability.”

Drug trafficking as one of the sources of financial nourishment of terrorism and violence is yet another challenge causing deep concern and alarm in the region and across the world, Rahmon noted.

Terrorism cannot be defeated only by building on the military might and solution and we should identify and meticulously examine the factors nourishing terrorism as a manifestation, Tajik leader said.

He further noted that unemployment, poverty and low level of social security are known to be among the causes promoting radicalization and terrorism.

Support of social sector growth in developing countries would be a key and the most effective way to promote an overall stability, Rahmon said, pointing to the necessity of expanding trade and economic ties and mobilization of new technologies to developing countries.

The president reportedly also joined the world leaders to attend the inauguration ceremony of the World Centre against Extremism, an important counter-radicalization initiative by Saudi Arabia.

While in Riyadh, Tajik leader held bilateral meetings with Saudi King Salman, US President Donald Trump, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, according to the Tajik president’s official website.