DUSHANBE, March 17, 2012, Asia-Plus  -- New British Ambassador to Tajikistan, Mr. Robin Jeremy Ord-Smith, presented a coy of his credentials to Tajik Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi on March 16.

In the course of the talks that took place after the presentation of a copy of credentials, Tajik minister welcomed a good level of bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and the United Kingdom and expressed hope for further expansion of mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries, the Tajik MFA information department reports.

Mr. Zarifi reportedly drew attention of Mr. Ord-Smith to the necessity of expanding economic and trade cooperation between Tajikistan and the United Kingdoms and attracting investments for development of the priority sectors of Tajikistan’s economy.

The sides also discussed a number of issues related to consideration and preparation of a number of bilateral documents for signing.

For his part, Ambassador Ord-Smith highly appraised the current level of bilateral cooperation and underlined the significance of cooperation on stabilization of the situation in Afghanistan and joint efforts in that direction, the source said.

They also discussed preparation and holding of the Fifth regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan (RECCA V) that will take place in the Tajik capital from March 26-27.

We will recall that Mr. Robin Jeremy Ord-Smith succeeded Mr. Trevor Charles Moore who was transferred to another Diplomatic Service appointment. 

Mr. Ord-Smith joined the FCO in 1989 and has served in a number of diplomatic roles at home and overseas, including Japan, Malaysia, Romania and Algeria.  Mr. Ord-Smith has also spent time seconded to the private sector as Marketing Manager Japan for BAE SYSTEMS, to the German Foreign Ministry and more recently to Buckingham Palace as APS to HRH The Duke of York. He was also Director of UK Trade and Investment in Iraq.