Qatar & friendly trade:
This week, Qatar's Minister of Finance and Acting Minister of Economy and Commerce Mr. Yousuf Hussein Kamal visited Tajikistan. While in Tajikistan, he and President Rakhmon arranged a cornucopia of economic agreements. These include setting up a council of business leaders from the Chambers of Commerce and Industry in both states, to facilitate trade and idea exchanges. Mr. Kamal also signed a document that allowed a Qatar-Tajikistan partnership between livestock companies, and Qatar also signed agreements concerning Dushanbe Real Estate.
Uzbekistan's virtual fence:
Uzbekistan has closed the border to Tajikistan before the September 1-2 Independence Day celebrations, citing possible security breaches.
Just contemplate the preceding sentence for a minute. Then think about border trade cut-offs. It's not the easiest thing, to be a neighbor of an isolationist state.
Russia's old project:
All that friendly feeling did not extend to Russia's RusAl, (or, Russian Aluminum), who had planned, with Russia's Mr. Putin's support, to build the proposed Rogun hydropower plant in Tajikistan. Rogun hydropower plant was supposed to have a capacity of 13 billion kW/h on the highland Vakhsh River, but negotiations broke down as to the quality of the dam that would have been required. President Rakhmon announced that Tajikistan would build it or seek other backers this past June; and has formally abrogated their RusAl contract as of today.
So, who might be courting for Rogun? Looks like India, or maybe China or Pakistan.
Afghanistan:
The Panj River Bridge between Afghanistan and Tajikistan is open, to mixed reviews. It's a beautiful bridge that is going to bring new opportunities for legal and illegal trade. Check out this post by Vadim for a full, educated discussion on the situation.
A newer article by Vadim covered the opening ceremonies, where Mr. Rakhmon talked about the illegal trade and Mr. Karzai talked about the legal trade, which is probably an indicator of the challenges foremost in each leader's mind.
In the end, he gives us a fascinating tableau of Sinatra, Afghan singing, and Tajik television that is the essence of the bright moments of globalization. And it looks like Tajikistan will continue to try to get more of those bright moments.
