Ahmadinejad in Tajikistan for SCO summit
Washington, 27 August (IranVNC)—Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in the Tajik capital city of Dushanbeh today to take part in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization [SCO] summit, which will take place tomorrow.
By: IranVNC
Published: Wednesday, August 27, 2008
17:35GMT—1:35PM/EST
IRAN – SCO – RUSSIA
Washington, 27 August (IranVNC)—Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in the Tajik capital city of Dushanbeh today to take part in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization [SCO] summit, which will take place tomorrow.
According to state-run IRIB News, Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and Energy Minister Parviz Fattah were among a party of Iranian officials accompanying Ahmadinejad.
Before departing from Tehran, Ahmadinejad told reporters: “The circle of cooperation between these countries in the fields of economics and security is expanding,” reports the official IRNA news agency.
The SCO – a regional security group – has Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as permanent members. Iran, as well as India, Pakistan and Mongolia, are observer nations.
Ahmadinejad also said that he would hold trilateral meetings with representatives from Afghanistan and Tajikistan – both Persian-speaking countries. According to the SCO website, Afghanistan is part of a special SCO-Afghanistan contact group established in 2005 for SCO members to contribute to the war-torn country’s reconstruction and security.
Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev will meet with Ahmadinejad, as well as China’s President Hu Jintao, on the sidelines of the summit.
Medvedev drew international condemnation after he announced yesterday that Russia would recognize the independence of the Georgian breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
China and the other four SCO members, all ex-Soviet states, have so far remained neutral on the Russia-Georgia issue, adopting a “wait-and-see” position, reports Reuters.
Although Iran has not supported the position of either side, Ahmadinejad told US reporter Charlie Rose in an interview last week that Georgia could have “managed” the conflict better.
Sources: IRNA in Persian, IRIB News in Persian, SCO website, Reuters
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