DUSHANBE, February 13, 2012, Asia-Plus  -- Tajik Ambassador to Ukraine Shuhrat Sultonov met with Kyiv Mayor Oleksandr Popov at the end of last week to discuss bilateral cooperation issues.

According to the Tajik MFA information department, further expansion of bilateral cultural and humanitarian cooperation between Tajikistan and Ukraine was the focus of the meeting.

The two, in particular, discussed cooperation of the Tajik side with a number of municipal bodies and Ukrainian universities located in Kyiv and activities of the Tajik Diaspora in the Ukrainian capital.

Due to support of a number of Ukrainian humanitarian and cultural organizations, Tajik children’s ensemble “Navrouz” has been established in Kyiv.

In the course of the talks, Tajik diplomat underlined the significance of implementation of agreements that were reached during Tajik president’s official visit to Ukraine in December 2011.

They also considered issues related to providing a building for Tajik Cultural Center in Kyiv.

Last week, Ambassador Sultonov also met with Ukraine’s Minister of Education, Youth and Sports Dmitry Tabachnik.  They discussed educational cooperation between the two countries and training of personnel for Tajikistan’s economy.

Tajik ambassador brought the issue of speeding up the opening of the branch of National Technical University (the Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute) in Dushanbe to Ukrainian minister’s attention.

Sultonov also plans to meet with senior representatives of National Technical University in the near future.

The Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute is the largest and oldest technical university in eastern Ukraine.  Founded in 1885, it is the second-oldest technical university in the Russian Empire (after Saint Petersburg State Institute of Technology) and in the territory of modern Ukraine (after Lviv Polytechnic).