Baku, Azerbaijan, April 27
Trend:
Ambassadors and experts from Russia and Central Asian countries discussed the prospects for regional integration processes at a round table in Dushanbe, RIA Novosti reported.
“The oldest and most important dialogue platform for resolving issues in various fields in the post-Soviet space is the CIS. The CSTO and the SCO have been established for cooperation in the military-political and security spheres,” Russian Ambassador to Tajikistan Igor Lyakin-Frolov said at the meeting.
He added that the Eurasian integration is actively asserting itself, which at this stage is represented by the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), based on the deep economic interests of the EAEU member countries in creating a common economic space.
“Tajikistan, as a sovereign state, has the right to independently decide on membership in a particular association in the post-Soviet space. There are various forms of cooperation with the EAEU, one of which is the status of an observer in the Union that was recently offered to our Tajik friends,” the ambassador said.
The observer status in itself does not imply any obligations to the EAEU. The diplomat noted the importance of the fact that participation in this organization does not imply rejection of cooperation between its members and the entire Union as a whole with other countries and integration associations at all.
“An example is the idea of pairing the EAEU with the Chinese ‘One Belt - One Way’ project,” Lyakin-Frolov explained.
Ambassadors of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, representatives of the expert and scientific communities of Tajikistan also took part in the event.
The heads of the diplomatic missions spoke in detail about their vision of the integration processes in the region and reaffirmed the consistent line of their states to strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation among the countries of Central Asia across the entire range of interstate relations, which is linked to the desire of the peoples for close cooperation based on common culture, history and religion.