WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd January, 2020) The Trump administration is sending a senior diplomat to visit Tajikistan in a bid to expand security ties and joint energy development, the Department of State said in a media note on Thursday.
"Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Alice Wells will travel to Tajikistan from January 6-7," the note said. "She will meet with senior Tajik government officials to discuss our shared interest in deepening regional security cooperation."
Wells would also discuss with Tajik officials expanding economic and energy connectivity as well as widening people-to-people ties, the State Department added.
Tajikistan is a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and shares a common border with Afghanistan, where US-dominated and led forces continue to fight a more than 18 year long war.
Chairman of the Coordination Service of the CIS Council of Border Troops' Commanders, Colonel General Alexander Manilov said in November that 8,000 militants from the Taliban and the Islamic State terrorist group (which is outlawed in Russia) remain in Afghanistan near the Tajik border.
