Friday, June 01, 2012 -
Tajik President Emomali Rahmon arrived in Beijing on Friday for the start of his five-day official visit for talks with top-level Chinese officials on trade, finance, energy, and telecommunications.
Rahmon has a delegation of senior officials in tow, including the Tajik foreign minister and the presidential advisor for foreign policy, as well as the ministers of finance, energy and industry, and others, according to the presidential press service.
The group will travel around the vast country to meet with the leaders of industrial enterprises, companies, and financial institutions, the Asia-Plus news agency reported the Tajik presidential press service as saying.
The Tajik leader will conclude the official part of his bilateral visit on Tuesday by holding talks with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao. The two are expected to sign a package of intergovernmental accords.
Rahmon will then stay on in the East Asian nation to participate in a meeting of heads of states of member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Jintao will preside over the two-day SCO session, which winds up on June 7.
The SCO, formerly the Shanghai Five, was founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia. Uzbekistan joined the group later.