Baku, Azerbaijan, March 12
By Fikret Dolukhanov – Trend:
Uzbekistan may participate in construction of water engineering installations in Tajikistan, including the Rogun Dam, Uzbek media reported citing the joint statement of the Uzbek and Tajik presidents.
President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev commenced an official visit to Dushanbe on March 9. The Uzbek-Tajik heads of state discussed all points of cooperation, including economy, humanitarian issues, energy projects and border issues.
“The sides expressed mutual interest in development of regional partnership in sphere of rational and fair use of the water resources and underlined the importance of existing and constructed water engineering installations for solution of water-energy issues of the Central Asia,” said the joint statement of Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Emomali Rahmon.
According to the statement, the Uzbek side expressed readiness to consider possibility of participation in construction of water engineering installations in Tajikistan, including the Rogun Dam, in accordance with international regulations and standards on construction of such objects.
“In this regard we sincerely welcome the Uzbek support in development of water engineering installations in Tajikistan, including the Rogun Dam construction,” Rahmon summed up the negotiations with the Uzbek counterpart.
He underlined that Tajikistan has never created any obstacles for the neighbors in the water use sphere and doesn’t intend to.
“We are not going to leave our neighbors without water,” the president added.
Construction of the Rogun Dam has officially started in October 2016, less than two months after the decease of former Uzbek President Islam Karimov, who had been coming against the project many years, reasoning his position with possible decrease of water flow to Uzbek fields.