Moscow: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is
scheduled to meet his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari
and Afghan leader Hamid Karzai in Dushanbe tomorrow for
bilateral and quadrilateral meetings convened by Tajik
President Emomali Rahmon.
The situation in Afghanistan, combat against terrorism,
illegal drug trade and economic rebuilding of Afghanistan will
be the main issues at the third quadrilateral summit of the
leaders of Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan, who
last time had met on similar in August 2010 in Russia`s Black
Sea resort of Sochi.
"In this context, the issues of enhancing regional
cooperation in stabilising the situation in Afghanistan and
Afghan-Pakistan frontier area with the involvement of
multilateral organisations like SCO and CSTO (Russia-led
post-Soviet Collective Security Treaty Organisation) will be
discussed at the quadrilateral summit," the Kremlin said in
its statement.
Pakistan along with India is an observer in the
Russia-China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and
Afghanistan is seeking an observer status in the regional
organisation.
"Russia highly values efforts of its partners in the
`quartet` in combating terrorist threat and is in favour of
involving Pakistan and Afghanistan in the joint efforts on the
basis of SCO`s anti-narcotics strategy for 2011-2016 and the
action plan for its implementation approved at SCO Astana
summit on June 14-15," the statement said.
The leaders of Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and
Tajikistan are also expected to focus on strengthening their
trade and economic relations, including the implementation of
joint infrastructure and energy projects and industrial
modernisation.
PTI
