Baku, Azerbaijan, March 29
By Fikret Dolukhanov – Trend:
Uzbekistan and Tajikistan will jointly assess risks related to the construction of the Rogun Dam, Vladimir Norov, the director of the Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies (ISRS) under the president of Uzbekistan, said on March 29.
“There are always some risks,” Norov said, commenting on the possible participation of Uzbekistan in construction of the water engineering installations.
For many years Uzbekistan had been against the project, which, according to the Uzbek authorities, was dangerous for the agricultural sector.
“Emomali Rahmon stated that Tajikistan has never violated interests of other regional states, has never left them without water and is not going to. It is a very solid political statement,” Norov underlined.
Uzbekistan expressed readiness to consider its participation in construction of the dam, as well as possibility of using the Sarez Lake as a source of fresh water. A working commission will be created in this regard, according to Norov.
“I proposed the Tajik counterparts to hold research in order to determine, which risks are real and which of them can be solved by joint effort not endangering interests of the two countries,” the director of the ISRS noted.