In the course of her Central Asian tour US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton plans to discuss with Tajik President Emomaly Rakhmon stabilization of the region and interaction in stabilizing the situation in Afghanistan and withdrawing ISAF troops from that country.
Clinton will arrive in Dushanbe on October 21, a source at the Tajik Foreign Ministry told Itar-Tass. According to the source, the next destination of her trip is Tashkent.
The US embassy in Dushanbe keeps quiet about the dates of Clinton's visit, but US diplomats have sent out invitations to journalists to a meeting with a high- ranking US representative due on October 22.
Last time Clinton met with the Tajik president on the sidelines of the OSCE summit in the Kazakh capital Astana in 2010.
Tajikistan was among the first countries to have supported the deployment of ISAF troops in Afghanistan in 2001 by letting NATO and the US use its air space and then a ground supply route to deliver non-military cargoes to Afghanistan.
Local independent experts believe the US needs help from Afghanistan's neighbors for intensifying the shipment of cargoes to that country amid the recurring crises between Washington and Pakistan.
Also, US diplomats would like to have the opinions of Central Asian leaders of the situation in Afghanistan. Local politicians are very well familiar with the nuances of political processes in the region.