On Saturday May 18, Tajik president Emomali Rahmon received Japan’s Foreign Minister Taro Kono on the sidelines of the 7th meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Central Asia Plus Japan Dialogue.

According to the Tajik president’s official website, Emomali Rahmon welcomed Mr. Taro Kono to Tajikistan and noted that Tajikistan attaches significance to expansion of bilateral cooperation with Japan.  

The two sides reportedly expressed satisfaction with the level of cooperation, the regular exchange of high-level visits and reciprocal official visits by heads of states and exchanged views on seeking new ways to enhance cooperation in trade, agriculture, energy, transportation, education, science, culture, sports and tourism.

Rahmon and Kono also discussed cooperation between Tajikistan and Japan in the frameworks of the Central Asia plus Japan Dialogue, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and other promising projects. 

The need for establishing business incubation center, Japanese investment fund, attracting Japanese direct investment in Tajikistan’s economy of Tajikistan and intensifying the work of the Intergovernmental Commission on Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation was underlined.

Sectors like agriculture (export of Tajik fresh fruits and vegetables to Japan, industry (launching joint ventures for processing metals, cotton and cocoon), mining and pharmaceutics were outlined as areas, which could drive the bilateral trade between the two countries.  

The two sides also exchanged views on the issues related to providing regional security, the current political situation in neighboring Afghanistan and jointly addressing modern global challenges and threats.