On Wednesday June 27, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon met here with Mr. Zalmay Mamozy Khalilzad, U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation.

According to the Tajik president’s official website, the two sides discussed state and prospects of further expansion of bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and the United States.  

Emomali Rahmon (R) and Zalmay Khalilzad

Tajik leader, in particular, noted, “Working together we could promote stability, peace and progress in Afghanistan.”  

Upholding Tajikistan’s sustainable position on the political situation in Afghanistan, Mr. Khalilzad highly appraised Tajikistan’s contribution to providing security and stability in that country and in the Central Asian region, says the Tajik president’s press service.  

He reportedly also appreciated President Rahmon’s creative efforts on behalf of the United States administration.  

In the course of the talks, Rahmon and Khalilzad paid a special attention to the issues related to further strengthening of control along the Tajik-Afghan border and efforts to jointly combat terrorism, extremism, radicalism and drug trafficking.  

Zalmay Mamozy Khalilzad (born March 22, 1951) is an Afghan-American diplomat, who has served as the Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation at the State Department since September 2018.  Previously, he served as a counselor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the president of Gryphon Partners and Khalilzad Associates, an international business consulting firm, based in Washington, D.C.  He has been involved with US policymakers in the State Department and the Pentagon since the mid-1980s, and he was the highest-ranking Muslim in the George W. Bush administration.

He was the United States Ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush and, briefly, President Barack Obama. Khalilzad's previous assignments in the Bush administration included Ambassador to Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005 and Ambassador to Iraq from 2005 to 2007.   

On September 5, 2018, Khalilzad was appointed by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to serve as a special envoy to Afghanistan.