DUSHANBE, February 11, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- Tuesday morning President Emomali Rahmon began an official visit to Belgium.

Yesterday morning, Rahmon held talks with Belgian Prime Minister, Mr. Herman Van Rompuy.  According to presidential press service, the two discussed issues related to establishment of mutually beneficial cooperation between Tajikistan and Belgium in different fields.  They, in particular, discussed cooperation in jointly processing primary aluminum, cotton fiber and farm produce, as well as developing Tajikistan’s natural resources, producing building materials and developing tourism in Tajikistan.

Rahmon and Van Rompuy also keynoted the need for holding regular conferences with participation of representatives of business and scientific circles of the two countries.

Their talks resulted in signing of a number of bilateral cooperation documents, including an agreement between the Government of Tajikistan and the Belgium-Luxemburg Economic Union (BLEU) on encouragement and mutual protection of investments, an agreement between the governments of Tajikistan and the Kingdom of Belgium on avoiding double taxation as well as a memorandum of cooperation between the foreign ministries of the two countries, the press service said.

The Belgium-Luxembourg Economic Union (BLEU) is an economic and monetary union between Belgium and Luxemburg, two countries in the Benelux economic union.  BLEU was created by a treaty, signed on July 25, 1921, between Belgium and Luxemburg, and came into effect on December 22, 1922.   The original treaty lasted for fifty years, expiring in 1972; this was extended for ten years in 1982 and again in 1992. On 18 December 2002, the two countries and the three regions of Belgium signed a new convention.  Under the terms of the treaty, the economic frontier was lifted and the Belgian franc and Luxembourgian franc were set at a fixed parity (though revised in 1935 and 1944).  While many aims of the BLEU have been subsumed by the European Union, it still has some relevance in being able to decide more precise measures within the more general boundaries of European level decisions.