Tajik minister: Ties with Iran is role model for int'l relations

Tajikistan's Minister of Culture Mirzoshohrukh Asrori lauded the close ties between Iran and his Central Asian state, and stated that the relations between the two Persian-language speaking nations set a role model for international relations.The ties between Iran and Tajikistan are based on protecting national interests and values, and the relations have now turned into an example and a role model for the international relations," Asrori said in a meeting with a visiting delegation from Iran's Northwestern province of East Azerbaijan in Dushanbe on Tuesday. He said that the ample historical and cultural commonalities between Iranians and Tajikistanis provided a proper ground for the establishment of desirable ties between the two neighbors. The minister said that the friendship and close relations between high-ranking Iranian and Tajik officials, specially between Presidents Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Emomali Rahmon, have strengthened the bilateral ties. Asrori further said that cultural exhibitions and exchange of cultural delegations between Iran and Tajikistan are among other effective measures which help further consolidate the already strong ties between the two countries. Iran and Tajikistan have recently accelerated expansion of their ties and cooperation and observers believe that the good achievements gained in area of their mutual cooperation should be deemed as a result of the efforts made by the two countries' officials. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who paid an official visit to Dushanbe last month, viewed the close and friendly relations between the two countries as special and exceptional. The president, who was in Tajikistan upon his Tajik counterpart Emomali Rahmon's formal invitation on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the ex-Soviet state's independence, hailed bilateral ties between Tehran and Dushanbe as "special and exceptional." He referred to the common cultural, historical and traditional commonalties between the two Persian-speaking nations and called for further exchanges of expertise in technological fields between Iran and Tajikistan.