Moscow: Security issues in the restive
Af-Pak region and an effective strategy to combat global
terrorism and drug-trafficking top the agenda of a key
quadrilateral summit to be hosted by President Dmitry Medvedev
on Wednesday in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.
The quadrilateral summit - including presidents of
Pakistan Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Russia -- will discuss
issues of security in Af-Pak region, effective combat against
international terrorism and drug-trafficking in Sochi
tomorrow, according to sources.
This would be the second meeting between Medvedev and
his Afghan, Pakistani and Tajik counterparts - Hamid Karzai,
Asif Ali Zardari and Emomali Rahmon in the quadrilateral
format. The Russian President will also have bilaterals with
them on the sidelines of Sochi meet, the Kremlin said.
Embattled President Zardari, who is under fire over
his handling of the flood tragedy at home, will be in Sochi
only for few hours.
Russia, which has air lifted the first planeload of
relief supplies to the flood victims in Pakistan, could offer
financial and other assistance to Islamabad during
Medvedev-Zardari meeting tomorrow.
Earlier Zardari had canceled his official Russia visit
scheduled for May `due to domestic constraints`, Foreign
Ministry sources here said.
"Russia could act as a donor of economic, social and
military-political security for Afghanistan, Pakistan and
Tajikistan," Konstantin Kosachev, the Chairman of the Duma
Foreign Affairs Committee, was quoted as saying by the
official news agency ITAR-TASS.
Medvedev, who first met with Zardari and Karzai in
bilateral and trilateral formats at Yekaterinburg in 2008 on
the sidelines of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)
summit, had underscored the infrastructural and economic
development of Af-Pak region as one of the key elements of
anti-terror strategy.
At the first quadrilateral summit in Tajik capital
Dushanbe in July 2009, Russia had proposed to develop regional
cooperation, trade and economic interaction in the new format,
including the development of infrastructure for transport and
energy linkages between Central Asia and South Asia (CASA).
According to the Russian news agency, under the
regional power project CASA-1000 Tajikistan will supply
electricity to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
PTI
