Iranian President Sayyid Ebrahim Raisi’s official visit to Tajikistan has been rescheduled to a later date.  Recall, Iranian president was scheduled to pay an official visit to Tajikistan from November 7 to November 8.

An official source within the Tajik president’s press service says Iranian president’s official visit to Tajikistan was rescheduled to November 8-9.  

The reasons for postponing the visit have not been not announced.

“On the morning of November 9, President Raisi will leave Dushanbe for Tashkent, Uzbekistan to participate in the 16th Summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO),” the source added.    

While in Dushanbe, Iranian President Sayyid Ebrahim Raisi is scheduled to hold talks with Tajik President Emomali Rahmon and their meeting will be followed by a meeting of the parties in an extended format.  

“The presidents are also expected to address a meeting of the Tajik-Iranian Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry that will take place here from November 7-12,” Abdufattoh Sharifzoda, a spokesman for the President of Tajikistan, told Asia-Plus Thursday (November 2) afternoon.

It will be the second visit of Iranian President Sayyid Ebrahim Raisi to Tajikistan.  For the first time, he visited Tajikistan on September 16, 2021 to participate in a meeting of the Council of Heads of States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).  

As far as Tajik President Emomali Rahmon is concerned, he paid an official visit to Tehran on May 30, 2022.  The visit included the meeting of the Presidents of the two countries Sayyid Ebrahim Raisi and Emomali Rahmon, as well as bilateral meetings of ministers and heads of relevant committees. This event certainly could be described as a landmark visit because the previous visit of Emomali Rahmon to the Islamic Republic of Iran was made nine years ago.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Tajikistan and Iran have naturally enjoyed a close and strong relationship with the two often being described as "one spirit in two bodies" by the ex-president of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad due to both being Persian-speaking and Iranic countries.

Iran was the first nation to establish an embassy in Dushanbe. It was also one of the first countries to extend diplomatic recognition of the newly independent Tajikistan in 1991.

During the civil war in Tajikistan, Iran offered to mediate between the two factions.  In 1995, Tajikistan opened its first embassy in Tehran, one of the few outside of the former USSR.  Relations have since grown stronger, as the two nations cooperate in the energy sector and officials from both nations have supported stronger ties.

Tajikistan and Iran have traditionally close relations, sharing many similar cultural, religious and ethnic identifiers and Iran has been a major sponsor of essential hydropower infrastructure in Tajikistan, but Iran has angered Tajikistan by inviting the Islamic Revival Party (IRPT) leader Muhiddin Kabiri to attend the International Islamic Unity Conference that took place in Tehran on December 27-29, 2015.

Tajikistan started taking efforts to improve its relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran in early 2019, and the long period of chill in relations between Tajikistan and Iran has come to an end.  There was clear evidence of that in late May last year, when Tajik President Emomali Rahmon paid an official visit to Tehran and signed 17 cooperation agreements.  The documents entail political, economic and trade cooperation between Tehran and Dushanbe, relations in the transportation sector, joint investment, new technologies, environmental issues, the energy sector, sports interaction, judicial cooperation, research and training, as well as the tourism industry.

In June 2022, Deputy Iranian Interior Minister for Security and Police Affairs Sayed Majid Mirahmadi, visited Dushanbe to attend the first meeting of the joint security task force between Iran and Tajikistan.

In September this year, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon and his Iranian counterpart Sayyid Ebrahim Raisi held talks in New York on the margins of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

According to the Tajik president’s official website, the two presidents discussed further expansion of the bilateral cooperation and a number of topical and regional issues being of mutual interest.

The parties also discussed cooperation between the two countries within international and regional organizations. 

Besides, Rahmon and Raisi exchanged views “on a tendency of increasing modern challenges and threats such as terrorism, extremism, drug trafficking, transnational organized crime and cybercrime, which create serious problems for the security of the countries.”

It was emphasized that Tajikistan and Iran, as the closest neighbors, are interested in restoration of peace and stability in Afghanistan.

According to data of the Agency for Statistics under the President of Tajikistan, a two-way trade between Tajikistan and Iran over the first nine months of this year has valued at has valued at US$175.1922 million, which is 11.4 percent more than in the same period last year.  This consisted of Tajikistan’s exports to Iran estimated at US$63.0261 million and Tajikistan’s imports from Iran US$112.1661 million.