Central Asian countries and Japan to step up the tourist vector of cooperation
On 26 January, Dushanbe hosted the 12th meeting of senior officials of the Dialogue "Central Asia + Japan".
The gathering were co-chaired by the first deputy head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Tajikistan Nizomiddin Zohidi and the Special Representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan in charge of Central Asia Ambassador Toshihiro Aiki.
The Turkmen delegation was led by Deputy Foreign Minister Hajiyev Vepa. Deputy ministers of foreign affairs of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, as well as the Director of the Department of General Asian Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan arrived in the Tajik capital.
The negotiations of the six-sided format, which is constantly searching for promising areas of joint activity, defined the tourism as a fundamentally new sphere of cooperation. In the opinion of the parties, the mutual increase in tourist flows, ultimately, will contribute to the enhancing mutual understanding between the Central Asian and Japanese peoples.
Issues of transport and logistics cooperation have become one of the top items on the agenda, especially in the light of the growing transit and communication importance of the Central Asian region on the Eurasian continent.
Also, opportunities for building up the trade, economic and investment partnership were highlighted.
The format "Central Asia plus Japan" was launched on the initiative of the Japanese side in August 2004 with the aim of promoting the full range of multilateral cooperation, including political, economic, humanitarian, environmental components.
Under the framework of this Dialogue, the foreign ministers’ meeting, the Senior Officials Meeting and the intellectual dialogue (Tokyo Dialogue) are held.
Tajikistan is chairing country in the “Central Asia+Japan” in 2017-2018.
