Statement of the President of the Republic of India Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil to Press at Dushanbe

I am very happy to be here in Dushanbe. I am particularly pleased that I have had a successful meeting with H.E. President Rahmon, whom I met earlier in India in 2006.

President Rahmon and I have had extremely useful and wide-ranging discussions. We have discussed issues of bilateral, regional and international importance.

My visit to Tajikistan is the first visit by an Indian President to the Central Asian region. The Central Asian region is our extended neighbourhood, and in fact, the city of Dushanbe is geographically closer to Delhi than many destinations within India. The Central Asian region figures very high in our foreign policy priorities. We would like our bilateral relations with Tajikistan to be truly multi-faceted and cover wide ranging areas from cooperation in the field of education and culture to investment and enhanced business transactions. We would like our bilateral relations to address the contemporary and crucial issues of energy, food and regional security.

Our region is today beset by the menace of terrorism. Terrorism, extremism and fundamentalism are posing a serious threat to the peace and security in our region, be it India, Afghanistan, or Tajikistan. The propagation of intolerance and hatred, and the resultant terrorism, is the greatest threat to world peace and security in the post-Cold War era. The terrorist attack in Mumbai last year was one more manifestation of terrorism in our region. It is imperative that all Governments of the region take urgent, proactive measures to cooperate and eliminate terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, so that these forces do not derail the processes of progress and prosperity. We value the support of Tajikistan in the fight against terrorism.

We consider ourselves to be partners in Tajikistan's quest for improving the skills and qualifications of its people. Over the years, we have provided training and participation for candidates from Tajikistan in various human resource development programmes in various fields. We propose to continue doing so, whether in Information Technology, entrepreneurial skills, defence training, English language, management and so on. India's ITEC programme offers short-term training programmes in these and other fields to about 100 candidates from Tajikistan. India has also undertaken several small-scale developmental and human resource projects in the region and we would be pleased to further share our knowledge. Tajikistan has attained notable progress in education and science, and greater cooperation in these areas would be in our common interest. We need to find mechanisms to promote this process through greater exchange of students, scholars and other cooperative programmes.

I value my interactions with the Tajik leadership. I look forward to my interaction with the Tajik Parliamentarians. I have invited President Rahmon to visit India again soon and I hope that we can take forward many of the new ideas for bilateral cooperation that we discussed. Me and my delegation are deeply touched by the warm welcome and hospitality accorded to us in Tajikistan.

I also take this opportunity to convey greetings from the people of India to the friendly people of Tajikistan.