DUSHANBE, December 29, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- On December 28, Tajik Ambassador to Afghanistan Sharofiddin Imomov met with Afghan Vice-President Mohammad Karim Khalili, according to the MFA information department.

State and prospects of further expansion bilateral trade and economic cooperation between Tajikistan and Afghanistan were a major topic of the talks.

A special attention was paid to the project for construction of railway from Tajikistan via Afghanistan to Iran.

It is to be noted that this issue has been discussed by officials of Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Iran over the past two years.  We will recall that a meeting of foreign ministers of three countries was held in Dushanbe on March 24-25 this year.  The trilateral summit was intended to bolster new efforts at trilateral cooperation and establishing a Tajik-Iranian-Afghan economic council.  Iran is actively engaged in developing several hydroelectric power plants in Tajikistan and is also working to complete construction of a planned Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Iran highway.  A related project envisions the construction of a new railway link connecting Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and China, aimed at boosting trade, increasing exports, and easing transit costs in the region, as well as expanding passenger traffic.  The railway project was also discussed