DUSHANBE, September 24, Asia-Plus — Members of the Majlisi Namoyandagon (the lower house of the Tajik parliament) and delegation of the Collective Security Treaty Organization’s (CSTO) Parliamentary Assembly (PA) have met in Dushanbe to discuss cooperation issues.    

Senior representatives from the Majlisi Namoyandagon and a group of members of the CSTO PA commissions met in Dushanbe today to discuss issues related to cooperation within the framework of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly.    

In the course of the talks the Majlisi Namoyandagon (MN) Speaker Saydullo Khairulloyev briefed the guests on work of the Tajik professional parliament.  

Telling the meeting, Abdumannon Kholiqov, the head of the MN Committee on Public Order, Security and Defense, noted that there are several unsolved issues on delineation of the Tajik-Kyrgyz border.  The issue is demining the Uzbek-Tajik border has also not yet been solved, according to him.  Tajik MP also pointed to the necessity of combining efforts to fight drug trafficking, terrorism and extremism.    

Kholiqov added that the CSTO PA could also facilitate resolving issue of granting amnesty to 50,000 Tajik labor migrants, who have been deported from Russia over the last three years.  

Member of Russia’s Federation Council Vladimir Vasilyev, heading the visiting CSTO PA delegation, underlined the importance of strengthening protection of borders.  He noted that provision of border guards with up-to-date equipment and other measures taken to strengthen border have allowed to half a number of terrorist acts in Russia compared to 2003.    

Kazakh MP Akhan Bizkanov telling the meeting noted that globalization processes require coordination of activities of the CSTO member nations and their parliaments.    

Member of Kyrgyzstan’s parliament (Zhogorku Kenesh) Rashid Tagiyev also underlined the importance of intensifying fight against drug trafficking.  

During their stay in Tajikistan, members of the CSTO PA delegation are also scheduled to meet with teachers and students at Russian-Tajik Slavic University (RTSU), senior representatives from Tajik security service and counternarcotics agency.  Tomorrow, they will visit the Tajik-Afghan border in the Khatlon province.   .

The delegation visit to Tajikistan will last until September 26.