China, Tajikistan Sign Joint Communique to Promote Ties, Cooperation

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao signed the communique with his Tajik counterpart Akil Akilov in his two-day visit to the Central Asian nation. During his stay there, Wen also attended the ninth prime ministers' meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

Both sides hailed the development of bilateral ties, and reiterated that the development of long-term and stable relations of good-neighborliness, friendship and cooperation is in the interests of the two peoples, the communique said.

China and Tajikistan also vowed to deepen political mutual trust and implement all the consensus reached between the two sides.

Meanwhile, China expressed appreciation of Tajikistan's adherence to the one China policy and its support to the peaceful development of cross-Strait ties and China's effort to pursue peaceful reunification.

The communique spoke highly of the Sino-Tajik trade and economic cooperation in recent years, holding that both sides should give priority to maintaining the sustained and stable growth of bilateral trade volume and to boosting cooperation projects in economic and technological fields.

Both countries have decided to give full play to the intergovernmental economic and trade committee to improve the environment for investment and trade and create new cooperative modes, the communique said.

The two neighbors, which are adjacent geographically and complementary to each other economically, also pledged to boost cooperation in such areas as transportation, telecommunication, electricity, finance, mining and agriculture, the communique said.

In the communique, both sides spoke highly of their cooperation concerning ports which contribute greatly to the development of bilateral economic and trade cooperation. The two nations will also speed up efforts to improve infrastructure construction in Karasu-Kulma port and customs clearance conditions to allow the all-year-round operation of the port at an early date.

The two countries, meanwhile, vowed to continue promoting cooperation in culture, education, health, tourism, sports and journalism, and encourage the sponsorship of cultural days and cultural festivals by each other as well as exchanges between youths of the two countries.

Both sides will further their close cooperation so as to continue improving the facilities and quality of teaching in the Confucius Institute in Tajikistan, the communique said.