DUSHANBE, August 31, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- Tajik Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi yesterday received visiting NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for the Southern Caucasus and Central Asia, Mr. Robert Simmons, according to the Tajik MFA information department.

The sides discussed state and prospects of cooperation between Tajikistan and NATO, including cooperation between Tajikistan and the North Atlantic Alliance within the framework of the Partnership for Peace Program (PfP).

Zarifi and Simmons also discussed border control issues, the situation in the Central Asian region, and the process of reconstruction of Afghanistan’s economy.

The Partnership for Peace is a program of practical bilateral cooperation between individual Partner countries and NATO.  It allows Partner countries to build up an individual relationship with NATO, choosing their own priorities for cooperation.  Based on a commitment to the democratic principles that underpin the Alliance itself, the purpose of the Partnership for Peace is to increase stability, diminish threats to peace and build strengthened security relationships between individual Partner countries and NATO, as well as among Partner countries.

Tajikistan joined the Partnership for Peace Program in 2002 and it participates in a range of activities under this program.