ISLAMABAD - Ambassador of Republic of Tajikistan, Zubaydullo N Zubaydov, hosted a grand reception to mark the 20th anniversary of diplomatic relations with Pakistan and Tajikistan here at a local hotel.
The event was full of colour and well attended. Federal Minister for Railway Ghulam Ahmad Balour was the chief guest of the ceremony while State Minister for Foreign Affairs Malik Amad Khan also graced the occasion. Senator Farhat Ullah Babar, the spokesman for President, also attended the reception and greeted the ambassador on behalf of the President of Pakistan.
The Tajik envoy is very close to the President of his country Imam Ali Rehmanov and he has sent Zubedov to Pakistan which reflects his priority to build strong relations between Pakistan and Tajikistan. The magnificent arrangement of the reception reflected the priority of Zubedove to improve relations with Pakistan. He personally called many guests which is not usual procedure among other envoys in Islamabad.
All political parties and other important personalities from all walks of life attended the function. Zubedov is quite fluent in speaking Arabic apart from Persian and English. He gave a very special protocol to the Arab Envoys who were sitting on sofa at the side of hall with chief guest.
There was a cultural and photo exhibition in hall and many participants showed great interest to see the beautiful Tajik girls in photograph in Tajik local dresses. Tajik Music and songs were also played by the Tajik singers at the occasion.
Expressing his views on the occasion, Zubedov said that they are marking the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Tajikistan and Islamic republic of Pakistan. He said 20 years is really a short time in the history of humanity but during this short span of time, the two brotherly nations Tajikistan and Pakistan achieved considerable progress in improving bilateral relations in areas of mutual interest.
He was extremely pleased and delighted that the two friendly counties took pragmatic measures to cope with threats and challenges. He showed great sense of satisfaction over the high-level of confidence and the great mutual understanding achieved by bother countries during the brief period of 20 years bilateral relations.
He said that that our nations were fully capable of becoming a model of fruitful and constructive cooperation in the region. We needed to strive more devotedly for boosting and strengthening of our multi-dimensional relationship, he observed.
Tajikistan is the fifth neighbouring country of Pakistan who has close border with Pakistan near Chitral. The present government has given special emphasis on Tajikistan to develop mutually beneficial relations with Pakistan. Pakistan and Tajikistan are also working on CASA 1000 a project of electricity of 100 megawatt to import from Tajikistan.
Tajikistan is also an important player in Afghanistan as the most dominated, ethnic group in Afghanistan after Pakhtun. Tajikistan, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Russia are working together on many issues to bring peace and stability in Afghanistan and in region.
It is expected that in the last week of September, Russian President Valadimir Putin, President of Tajikistan Imam Ali Rehmanov and President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai would attend a meeting at Islamabad which will be historic in the sense that Russian President would visit Pakistan after a gap of 40 years which would be very beneficial for regional peace and stability.