 It's a format for dialogue and a platform for joint efforts to address common challenges faced by the United States from the five Central Asian republics. Thirty years of successful bilateral relations is no small feat, and we have an esteemed group of high-level officials and experts with us today to mark this occasion and reflect on the progress that has been made as well as the challenges that lie ahead. To start us off, it is my great pleasure to introduce US Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia, Donald Lu, and Tajikistan's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Farhad Saleem, to provide keynote remarks. Donald Lu has served as the Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs since September 2021. Prior to this assignment, he was US Ambassador to the Kyrgyz Republic and the US Ambassador to the Republic of Albania. He has a long and distinguished diplomatic career that includes postings in India, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan. And I have the honor to have met Don on his very first posting to Peshawar in Pakistan back in the early 1990s, where I did introduce Don to his wife for which I take great credit. Farhad Saleem was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Tajikistan by President Rahman in April 2021 after serving as Tajikistan's Ambassador to the US from 2014 to 2021, where we had the honor of hosting him at USIP as well. He also served as the Head of the Europe and America Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Head of Division of Regional Organizations in the International Organizations Department. After their keynote addresses, we will have a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Gavin Helf, USIP Central Asia Senior Expert. And so without further ado, I'd like to invite Assistant Secretary Liu up to the podium. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Deputy Minister Saleem, Ambassador Hummer-Lizada, Ambassador Hoagland, my old dear friend John Mark Palmasheim, my even older friend Andrew Wilder, Mrs. Halimova, Mr. Mohamed Zada, Dr. Helf, dear colleagues. So I brought in a painting today, and I see Dick Hoagland here in the audience. He will remember these days. I bought this painting on the streets of Dushan Bay 20 years ago, and it has hung in my office for 20 years as a memory of the friendship between our two countries. And I'll explain why. On that trip to Dushan Bay, it was my first trip to Tajikistan, my first trip to the region, in fact. I was accompanying my boss, Ambassador John Byerly, who was the acting Assistant Secretary for the region. And even though it was my first trip to Tajikistan, it was not Ambassador Byerly's first trip. He had traveled to Dushan Bay when Tajikistan was still part of the Soviet Union. John is a fluent Russian speaker and had been at that time, during the Soviet times, an exhibit guide, a young person who had just graduated from university, spoke Russian, and traveled throughout the Soviet Union talking about American culture and society with regular people. And on one of his stops as an exhibit guide, he visited Dushan Bay as a young man had the opportunity to talk to Tajik people and tell them a little about America. They had questions about American food, about American music, and American jeans. He was the first foreigner that many of his new Tajik friends had ever met, and he was an exotic America. When I visited Dushan Bay 20 years ago, I also felt this tremendous sense of hospitality. I remember Tajikistan at that time was barely 10 years old. There were still bullet holes in the government buildings left from the Civil War. There were no fancy hotels or big shopping malls. People were so generous to us with their bread and their tea and their incredible plov. I have a very strong memory of having visited the Varsal River near Dushan Bay and enjoying fresh grilled fish with newfound friends. It's a really magical experience for me and something that I will remember my whole life. I'm honored to join you today to celebrate this 30th anniversary of our warm relations between our two great nations. We have accomplished so much in 30 years. I'll give you some examples. We have worked together to make Tajikistan a safer place with a project to clear land mines from 70 square kilometers of Tajik land that can now safely be reclaimed for homes and for farms. We have worked together to fight COVID-19 with 2.8 million doses of vaccines donated by the U.S. and distributed so effectively by the Tajik Ministry of Health. And we have worked through USAID on installing a new 200 kilowatt Mirgol solar power plant. Now it's the first solar power plant in Tajikistan but it's also the highest elevation solar power plant in the world. And finally we have supported education programs together through our colleagues at USAID that have reached 90 percent of all of the schools across this beautiful country. We have had a tremendous first 30 years together. I am looking forward to returning to Dujan Bay hopefully this summer with my colleague Brian Stimler who's here in the audience with me for our annual bilateral consultations. I'm looking forward to seeing all the changes that have happened over the past 20 years and I'm looking forward to having some of the best plov and the freshest fish on the planet. Thank you all very much. Congratulations on 30 years. And I'd now like to welcome the Deputy Foreign Minister joining us from Dujan Bay, Farhad Saleem. Over to you. Mr. Donald Blue, distinguished colleagues. First of all I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the U.S. Institute of Peace for organizing today's event marking the 30th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations between our countries. Last year Tajikistan celebrated its 30th anniversary of state independence. And on this occasion the President of the Republic of Tajikistan, His Excellency Imam Ali Rahman, in his speech has mentioned, I quote, I would like to emphasize that it was not an easy for the glorious Tajik people to achieve this happy day. The celebration of 30th anniversary of independence and freedom and the greatest achievement of this period, peace and tranquility, political stability and national unity. We all together have gone through threats, incredibly difficult trials and the challenges over the past 30 years in order to achieve these happy victorious moments, unquote. Distinguished colleagues, we are grateful to our partners and friends who supported us, collaborated with us during these 30 years to overcome the security and economic challenges. Still much needs to be done, a lot of work is ahead of us, but we are confident with the dedicated people and reliable partners, we will have more prosperous future. Tajikistan highly values the bilateral cooperation with the United States of America and stands ready to do its utmost to strengthen further the two countries relations for the benefit of our people. With regard to the importance of our bilateral relations with the United States of America, the president of Tajikistan, the leader of the nation on his address to the parliament has noted, quote, issues of strengthening and expanding multilateral cooperation with our development partners, such as the United States of America remain as a priority of foreign policy of our country, unquote. The open doors for foreign policy determined by our president will be indeed implemented by us diplomats in cooperation with our partners. Taking this opportunity, I would like to also thank the U.S. Agency for International Development for the implementation of the programs and projects in the areas of financial management, improving investment climate, improving cross-border trade and transit, democratic institutions, agriculture, education and healthcare. Distinguished friends, when the new United States strategy for the Central Asia 2019-2025 was introduced, it was clear that our visions are similar on many important issues, such as to build a more stable and prosperous Central Asia that is free to pursue political economic and security interests with a variety of partners on our own terms and connected to the global markets and open to international investment. It is true that a stable and secure region of Central Asia contributes directly to your efforts to counter terrorism, support regional stability, promote energy security, and enhance economic prosperity in the region and beyond. Distinguished colleagues, 30 years of U.S.-Tajikistan partnership, what is next now? When 9-11 happened, Tajikistan immediately expressed its support and provided its infrastructure to the international coalition and partners to fight against international terrorism. Now 20 years later, we are still sharing the longest border with the challenges and threats of terrorism, trafficking and organized crime. We highly appreciate the U.S. support provided to our law enforcement agencies over the years on strengthening our borders to prevent drug trafficking and terrorism. Moreover, we want to strengthen our economic ties, attract more investment, and increase our trade with the most advanced economy of the globe. And this goal can be achieved much easier and faster if our financial institutions could have access to the corresponding accounts in the U.S. financial institutions. This basic access could provide favorable environment for our businesses and support for our broader development goals. Three decades of the partnership have been built on our shared goal of sovereign independent and prosperity. Over the coming years, let's continue our collaboration to reinforce border security and regional stability, combat the climate crisis for economic growth, education, increase the effectiveness of institutions, promote prosperity, and enhance our partnership. I thank each and every one of you. Thank you. So good morning. It's wonderful to be back in this lovely building. My name is Gavin Helf and I'm a senior expert on Central Asia here at USIP. Welcome to the beginning of the new hybrid reality. We are testing out a panel that includes the best of what we've learned over the last two years about Zoom and virtual with a real panel in real time. Our virtual audience out there can take part in today's discussion by asking a question using the chat box function located just below the video player on the USIP event page. For those joining in person, please write your questions on index cards and my colleagues will collect them later in the discussion for me. We've got a great panel joining us today here and online from Duchamp Bay. I'll moderate by asking a series of questions to each of the panelists and our panelists can feel free to respond to each other's answers. After a round or two of this, we'll turn to your questions. But first, it's my great pleasure to introduce our panelists. Ambassador John Palmer Shine was appointed as United States Ambassador to Tajikistan in January of 2019. He previously served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Astana, Kazakhstan. He served as Director of the Caucasus Affairs and Regional Conflicts at the State Department's Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. In his Foreign Service career, he has served in a wide variety of positions in Washington and worked in embassy political sections in Japan, China, Belarus, and Germany. He also served as a US Consul General in Vladivostok, Russia. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Ambassador Palmer Shine worked for CNN in Moscow. Ambassador Faruk Hamar Dezoda has served as Ambassador of the Republic of Tajikistan in the United States since December of 2020. He served in numerous leadership capacities throughout his career, including Chairman of the Tajikistan State Committee on Investments and State Property Management and Chairman of the Accounts Chamber. Ambassador Hamar Dezoda was Minister of Economic Development Trade from 2009 to 2012. Zora Harimova has over 20 years' experience working on post-conflict transitions from 1996 to 2016. She was Executive Director of the Open Society Institute Association Foundation in Tajikistan. Since then, she's worked as a consultant for the World Bank, the European Union, GIZ, Internews Network, and the Institute for Integrated Transitions. And finally, Partiz Muhammad Azora is Deputy Director of the Center for Strategic Research under the President of the Republic of Tajikistan. He has held numerous high-level positions with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Tajikistan, including his First Secretary of the Asian Division, First Secretary of the Secretariat, and First Secretary of the Asia-Pacific Division of the Asia-African Department. Prior to joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Partiz was a faculty member at Tajik National University in numerous capacities, including his Acting Head of the Department of Diplomacy and Foreign Policy. All right, so I'm going to start this off with some questions and I'm going to ask John Parmeshine first to help us understand a little bit about the context. You know, the situation in Tajikistan when I first visited there after the collapse of the Soviet Union was one where they were just coming out of a civil war. The U.S. presence in Dushanbe was limited. I remember meeting ambassadors to Tajikistan who were resident in Almaty. And of course, after 9-11, the entire relationship shifted to address the issues around America's involvement in Afghanistan. So, Ambassador Parmeshine, how do you see the overall security and economic relationship with Tajikistan evolving in the future, given all the tectonic geopolitical shifts in the region that have occurred in your time as ambassador in the last year or so? Well, thank you very much, Gavin. And thank you to USIP and to the Embassy of Tajikistan. Ambassador Hamar El-Zoldah, it's very good to see you on the screen. Ambassador Salim, nice to see you as well, even though you're just across town also on the screen. So the technology does seem to be working, which is a good thing. And that's always a question, as was alluded to earlier. But I think in terms of context, I think both you, Gavin and Ambassador Liu pointed out the incredible progress that Tajikistan has made over the last 30 years in terms of its development, in terms of economic development, and in terms of its relations with the rest of the world. And as a matter of fact, since the Civil War, Don mentioned the Civil War, it really hasn't been a full 30 years, right? I mean, if you look at sort of quality years that Tajikistan has had in order to accomplish its goals, it's not 30. It's closer to 20 because of what Tajikistan had to deal with in the 1990s. And so really, some of the progress is quite incredible. But Gavin, your question was more specifically related to security and economic partnerships. And I would say for the United States, the security aspect of US-Tajikistan relations has been at the forefront of what we've been doing with Tajikistan over the last 30 years or so. And Tajikistan faces a number of very serious security challenges. By tectonic shifts, I assume you are referring to events of last year and the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. Ambassador Saleem mentioned the 1300 plus length, longest border with Afghanistan of any country in Central Asia. And so we have focused a lot of our efforts in trying to help Tajikistan ensure the security of its borders as a cornerstone of our cooperation. And obviously, at the heart of what we're doing and at the heart of our Central Asia strategy is to support Tajikistan's sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independence. And the ability to manage its own borders for our country is key to doing that. And our commitment in this area will continue. We've got an additional 60 million in security assistance budgeted for the next two years. And we are undertaking a number of very significant projects right now along the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border. For example, I would just mention the Tajik in the corner area down where the Tajik-Afghan and Uzbek borders meet in a place called Avaj. We are building a border guard detachment headquarters that will help Tajikistan patrol that area and beyond that will house 900 officers and family members for the Tajikistan border guard. So that's in the context of our overall assistance, which of course extends much broader than just the security front. And the figure that we like to cite is in terms of what we've done over the years, in terms of development, humanitarian, security assistance over these last 30 years, it's been about $1.8 billion, which is a very significant investment. And then very briefly, to the second part of your question on the economic front, one of the, I think, big achievements of the last 30 years was our work with the United States government's work with the government of Tajikistan to see Tajikistan a seed to the WTO, the World Trade Organization. And that was a real milestone. And right now, of course, we are dealing with the situation in Ukraine. We know that Tajikistan has concerns about the potential impact of the sanctions. The sanctions were designed and intended to mitigate consequences on other countries, such as Tajikistan. But the reality is, the Tajik and the Russian economies are very intertwined. So we have further work to do there and further consultation to do there to make sure that Tajikistan is not disadvantaged. But our overall effort on the economic front over the years has been to promote economic growth and regional connectivity. And so that has been a big focus, including in the C5 plus one mechanism. And also, we've also worked very closely with our Tajik partners on the foreign investment climate to try to engage with our partners to try to create, to help Tajikistan create the kind of climate that would attract more U.S. investment and investment from other parts of the globe to Tajikistan. And we can get into, perhaps later, for the discussion of what those what those areas might be. But as one example, I would just note that there's been quite a bit of effort undertaken recently in Dushanbe on the tax code. And the World Bank has been very much involved in that reform process. And we're hopeful that those reforms will be successful, because that's one of the areas that U.S. business, when they talk to us, that they site as one area, which would be very helpful to them in terms of reforms, in terms of the ability to have additional investment and additional economic activity occurring between the United States and the Republic of Tajikistan. Thanks, John. Now I want to turn to Ambassador Hamar Al-Zorah. Some around town, and I have certainly heard it in the last seven or eight months, a concern that the United States is leaving Central Asia or has forgotten about Central Asia in the post-Afghanistan era. And it's shifting its priorities to other places. So I want to ask you, Ambassador, why has continued United States engagement in the Central Asia region and with Tajikistan so important? Thank you, Mr. Hel. The Vice President, Mr. Wilder, Deputy Minister, Mr. Salim, Assistant Secretary, Mr. Lu, Ambassador, Mr. Pomershan and the esteemed colleagues, ladies and gentlemen. Before I answer the question, I would like to say I am honored to extend my gratitude to the United States Institute of Peace for hosting us today when dedicated to the 30th anniversary of USA-Tajikistan diplomatic relations. Honorable Mr. Lu, let me extend my sincere gratitude to the government of the United States of America for their hospitality and the continuous three decades of fruitful cooperation. I wish to also mention today another important milestone, the 30th anniversary of independence of Tajikistan and express my gratitude to the U.S. partners and friends for celebrating with us in 2021. So why is continued U.S. engagement in Tajikistan in the region important? In fact, it's important from the global, regional and country perspective. Globally, people and governments all over the world recognize the importance and necessity of solidarity in response not only to COVID, but other global challenges. And we have deliberately assumed vital security tasks, such as consuling terrorism and extremism, drug and armed trafficking, organized crime, as well as illegal migration that are rapidly intensified nowadays. Tajikistan remains committed to continue prevention, further spread, but transnational and the transregional nature of them required us taking joint action. From the regional perspective, Tajikistan is always in favor of constructive and based on friendship, good neighborliness, mutual respect and trust, cooperation with countries in the region. And it should be noted that in addition to the negative consequences of the pandemic, impact of the unforeseen factors has significantly intensified, multiply existing and emerging risks in our region, as mentioned today, Deputy Minister and Mr. Pomer Shame. The economic and social spheres in Tajikistan are negatively impacted and therefore cooperation and support from the United States and international financial institution is crucial. The previous speakers already mentioned very important mutually beneficial areas and joint projects and the programs implemented in priority sectors in Tajikistan. Today, the country continues international institutional, economic and social reform, as well as integrated into regional and global institution processes. We are genuinely interested on the strengthening economic and investment ties with the United States of America. One of the main priorities in strengthening business relations between Tajikistan and the United States and the diversification of trade and investment structure, notably modern technology and global development created condition for entirely different format of economic cooperation and business investments. Despite COVID restriction, effective dialogue platforms have been established between our countries. Tajikistan, please to note that one of the most effective platform is US-Tajikistan Business Council, President of this Council, Mr. Philip De Leon, President here, and we note with satisfaction the increased interest for mutually beneficial cooperation between American companies, including those actively already investing and trading in neighboring countries in the region and their Tajik partners. This further facilitation of this process we are confident that soon various business ideas will be transferred into the real projects. Dear friends, in 30 years of the robust partnership Tajikistan and US have jointly made valuable contribution to peace, stability and sustainable development, recognizing a geographical location of Tajikistan and fragile and complex environment in the region, which puts Tajikistan at the forefront of countering most challenging current threats. And I wish to stress today that the need and the demand for global, regional and country partnership are strong as ever. And we are confident that our continuous bilateral relations will allow us to extend and expand existing partnership between Tajikistan and United States of America for many years to come. Thank you. Thank you. Now I want to switch a little bit to questions of foreign assistance and non-governmental engagement. Zora, United States official foreign assistance and non-governmental engagement in Tajikistan has been up and down over the last 30 years, ebbing and flowing, and this is true across the region, but during this period of bilateral relations. How important are foreign assistance and people-to-people engagements for the relationship between the two countries? Okay. Thank you for the question. I would like to thank all the speakers before because they mentioned the very crucial moments is about that Tajikistan had to go through the development of their nation building and country development through a more difficult way rather than our neighbors did. We had to go through the civil war. We had to go through the reconstruction, humanitarian aid phases and et cetera. So the country was devastated by civil war and we had to restart actually building unlike our neighbors who were just continuing their existence. And they didn't really face the difficulties we actually faced in Tajikistan. So with the help of United States and many other partners in development, Tajikistan gone through smoothly through the peace process and national reconciliation. And actually, if we look at the 1997 when the peace process started and 2000, we can actually sense, we already sense that there is enough stability to really start with the development projects. And that was important to see the role of United States and other donors who actually came to help not only with humanitarian assistance but also providing the assistance in the development of different institutions, providing the assistance on like first reforms of education, reforms in different other spheres. But also I have to mention is of course support for development of vibrant civil society, which was very important that time because we were post-conflict coming together, thinking what it is to be done for the country who is in post-conflict situation and post-Soviet as well. They had to really think about what it is, the civil civil, what is vibrant civil society is. And your idea come about like you know to organize themselves, the civil society will organize themselves into the initiative groups who would actually come with the ideas and work with the government and the donors and the communities to provide different assistance. I think I have to mention that from that time on work there were many different initiatives happening. Women rights activism started being very crucial in that moment especially post-war to really show the importance of addressing the issues violence against women and actually supporting women professionals to come together in different associations. And we have the role of women legal legal women lawyers very crucial in post-conflict and they are actually very active now on the addressing issues of violence against women. We also have human rights NGOs who actually started producing a lot of active work on different levels in the inside country, but also on the international level to address issue of the issues related to human rights and supporting government especially to participate in the process of universal periodic review and supporting them on working out the recommendations and etc. So we have been going through different phases of development and we were collaborating all together. Of course we are not saying that everything was going smooth, but there was collaboration there was true belief that there is a collaboration which will actually help to move forward and it did. So we have lots of different organizations country gun through the post-soviet post-conflict moving toward market economy and right now we are in the age of actually digital transformation and building digital economy and US assistance is now quite extended into the supporting startups. We have new generation of activists who are coming down and actually coming with their vocal voice what it is to be done and they want to be really participant on the development of their country and not country only but also region. So there is value added of US government support for the civil society in Tajikistan but it's also about other donors who are also supporting civil society and it would be very good not only support digital transformation but also keep the eye on supporting classic issues like human rights, women rights, children rights and freedom of expression. Thank you. Thank you. Now I want to turn to Parviz Mukhamadzoda back in Dushan Bay. In addition to our bilateral relationships the United States engages with Central Asia through the C5 plus 1 mechanism which has existed was founded under President Obama and was promoted through the Trump administration and is now supported by the Biden administration and I think it's hard to find a policy that's lasted that long through that many changes in US government. So I want to ask Parviz how do C5 plus 1 engagements help Central Asian states come together as a region? Why doesn't Central Asia have a regional organization like many others that like the European Union or ASEAN or the Organization of American States or the African Union? How do C5 plus 1 relationships help move the region forward? You're muted, you're muted Parviz. Thank you very much Mr. Mukhamadzoda. Here Mr. Farouk Salim, Donald Doe, and Mr. Parvishrein and also here we have the Mr. Mohanadzoda Farouk Mukhs as a ambassador to Tajikistan the United States, their colleagues and distinguished participants. Before answering your question we prepared here a special report for today's occasion for our participants who are taking part here. That's why at the outset I would like to thank the organizers for initiating this timely meeting on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations and between Tajikistan and the United States and totally can be delayed all of us on the occasion of this historical event. On the occasion of this historical event the founder of peace and national unity leader of nation President of Republic of Tajikistan is Excellency Minister Iwan Rahman and President of the United States of America gathered by the exchange congratulating telegrams on the occasion of 30 years anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between two countries. Over the past 30 years a lot of practical experience and significant achievements have been accumulated in framework of bilateral and multilateral cooperation between our countries. During this time Tajik American relations have passed an extraordinary past and reached a high level of cooperation and today dynamically developing multi-phase interaction allows us to successfully implement the agreements reached between our countries in various fields. Over the 30 years of establishing diplomatic relations between our states close cooperation has been established in the field of non-proliferation, the fight against terrorism, security and military technical cooperation, trade and investment on issues of democracy and human rights, health and education, energy and people-to-people cooperation. We should also know the similarity of the position of two countries in solving urgent problems at threats including Afghan problem, Afghanistan problem and COVID-19, economic recovery, climate change and many other questions. Analyzing the 30 years development of cooperation, it should be noted that the main trend being with the rigorous development of bilateral and multilateral relations between Tajikistan and the United States. Our countries during this historical period have demonstrated to the entire world community a new approach to solving complex regional problems and issues of bilateral relations. It's expressed with a first of all in active discussion as well as in wide exchange of views of the parties. The development of common approach, the formation of common agenda for cooperation for the foreseeable future. We know with particular satisfaction that the substantive dialogue at the highest and high levels that is expanding from year to year based on mutual trust, mutual respect and mutual support which make it possible to achieve significant results in strengthening bilateral cooperation to coordinate effort within the UN, C5 plus one and other international organization and diplomatic formats in solving the most pressing problems of the regional and global agenda. The relationship between Tajikistan and United States within the UN in traditional build on the principles of mutual trust, friendship and mutual respect. Our cooperation mainly called the support of each other candidacy for various UN electoral bodies and resolutions put forward by both delegations. The government of the Republic of Tajikistan highly values the bilateral cooperation with the United States and stands ready to do its utmost to deepen the two countries relations for our current interests. The Republic of Tajikistan streams to develop sustainable and long-term cooperation with the USA. We regard USA as a reliable and constructive long-term partner. Today we have an experience of mutual beneficial cooperation with USA. Annual bilateral consultation between the two countries serve as a good platform to exchange views on international, regional and bilateral matters of mutual interests. Regular ABC give us the opportunity to plan the development of our relations. Here we mentioned that all of the between our countries was signed as 34 bilateral documents in the spheres of military technical cooperation in point against terrorism, drug trafficking and economy and trade. Tajikistan is open for further strengthening the legal framework which will open new opportunities for the expansion of the cooperation between our countries. It must be stated that Tajik American relations are at a new historical point. We are confident that our countries will continue close contacts, jointly implement agreements which and in the future with the framework of Tajik American cooperation in various areas it will be dynamically developed and be filled with new rich content including the implementation of joint infrastructure projects that are of strategic importance for Tajikistan. Despite a close and friendly relation between our countries, the trade between Tajikistan and the US is relatively low. The volume of our bilateral trade in 2020 was $38.1 million. In 2021 it was $44.9 million and in January until March 2022 reached $26.6 million respectively. We have mostly import from the US to Tajikistan within the bilateral trade during this period. In this regard it's necessary to take joint measures to increase foreign trade and in a balanced and mutual beneficial way. To further enhance trade relations it's necessary to create new and up-to-date tools for developing economic trade and investment cooperation such as investment for our large joint economy and trade shows. The US is the Tajikistan trade partner and we are seeking greater trade engagements with the US. Tajikistan is interested in further implementation of training and scholarship programs in the field of international relations, strategic research, management, engineering, information technology, innovation, economy, investment, industry, energy, health, care, tourism, etc. Therefore the Tajik side would very much appreciate if the American side in the spirit of reliable partnership and friendly assistance allocate scholarship quotes for Tajik students interested in starting the Ebola mission specialist in the leading universities of the US. Also we can say that the proactively participate Tajikistan in the United States regional initiatives such as C5 Plus one both in ministerial and working groups which this year we mark the seventh anniversary of its creation. C5 Plus one format has contributed to increasing economic and energy connectivity, mitigating environmental and health challenges addressing security threats and advocating for the full participation of a woman in all aspects of political, economic and social life. Tajikistan in co-chair in security working groups and in this capacity it hosted meetings of this group in 2017, 2019 in Dushanbe and in 2020 in online format. During this meeting participants discussed regional counterterrorism efforts and the trade retreat of returning foreign fighters working through projects on countering violent extremism, strengthening the regional cooperation in the fight against security threats and challenges and other relevant issues. Today the prospects of mutual beneficial and close cooperation between the Central Asian States and USA gives a new impetus to further development in the regional cooperation by initiating the implementation of joint projects both for the states of the region and for the USA. Initially in our opinion it's urgent to develop a further action plan for our states in this direction that stood down to a common understanding of the topical areas of bilateral cooperation. One of the areas of the friendship and partnership between the Republic of Tajikistan and Central Asian States is cooperation between 10 banks of the region over the years of independence the Center for Strategic Research under the President of Republic of Tajikistan has a leading brain trust of the country established close ties with leading brain trust of the world. Center for Strategic Research carries out scientific research on economic and domestic political issues. Our center is one of the responsible state bodies of the Republic of Tajikistan for implementation of strategy for countering extremism and terrorism for 2021 and 25. In accordance with the action plan for its implementation the center intends to conduct an advanced training courses, seminars, international conferences and summer schools on the prevention of extremism and terrorism in society. We also plan to conduct a sociological research on the participation of women in extremist and terrorist organizations as well as among the leather migrants. The center may also conduct research and other scientific activities on social economic issues so we regard it as one of the priority areas of our activity and here we propose to strengthen scientific and research cooperation between 10 banks of Tajikistan and US. At first stage we invite USIP to establish cooperation with our center. Here we also convince that the Republic of Tajikistan and the United States enclosing constructive partnership will be able to successfully interact in the name of sustainable development and prosperity of the pupils of the two countries. Achieving lofty goals set us the task of continuing to develop and further strengthen the constructive dialogue between our countries. What about this also we hear mentioned about the question which you asked Mr. Moderator that why the Central Asian countries doesn't have such an organization as European Union, as African Union or ASEAN. We hear firstly we should say that creation of an international organization it's a period it's a process and Central Asian countries nowadays are now over the 30 years they are now in the formation of their independence that's why we can say that in the process of creation of an organization with the participation of only Central Asian countries we should say that on April 1994 the Central Asian States was organized such an organization which was named Central Asian Economic Community. It was signed by a trilateral agreement between Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. But this organization could not fully function as an original association without participation of other states of Central Asia including Tajikistan. With the end of civil war in Tajikistan in 1998 Tajikistan was joined to this organization. But the next phase or path of economic intervention of the Central Asian countries was the transformation of this Central Asian Economic Community to a Central Asian cooperation organization which furthered different relations within the region and was removed all kinds of barriers between the countries of the region. In December 2001 a meeting of president of Central Asia was held in Tashkan where the proposal to transfer this Central Asian Economic Community into the organization of Central Asian Organization was supported. But the agreement on the establishment of this organization was signed in 2002 in Almato. But the newly created organization could not reach the next stage solving down development which may have been caused by external factors and other objective causes or factors. New stage of integration process in Central Asia we can say that it was happened after a new government in coming to the power in Uzbekistan. It was a new stage of relation between the countries of Central Asia in this region. The new government of Uzbekistan has set a course for a rare approach and improvement of relations with neighbors and building friendly and good neighborly relations. And now this kind of cooperation is a consultative meeting of the head of states of Central Asian countries. First meeting was held in 2018. It was in Astana and second was in Uzbekistan in 2019. And the next was 2021 in Turkmenistan and we hope that this basic meeting which is named consultative meeting of the head of state of Central Asian countries will be in the near future and it will be transferred to an organization for the Central Asian countries. But now all kind of questions between these countries are solved and considered in framework of this consultative meeting without third parties. About Central C5 plus one how this C5 plus one with Russia with China with US as you mentioned except these countries you mentioned also we should mention that with Central Asian countries in format of C5 plus one also have such a format with Korea with Japan with European Union with Italy and I think that all these actors of international relations with Central Asian countries they have been their own agenda and really we should say that if we consider only the US plus C5 here we should mention that if US wants a success and help to Central Asian countries it US should accelerate the process of institutionalization of secretaries in framework of C5 plus one and also I can say that US can succeed only with financing infrastructure and economic project if financed otherwise other countries I can give an example that China only with this one belt and one road now has only succeed that's why we are proposing that for succeeding US in Central Asian countries and to help Central Asian countries to get together as a region only the way is to participate in this framework and to infrastructure and other projects in this region all right thank you thank you parties thank you parties I want to save some time for we're starting to get some questions from the audience online and in person I want to remind everyone here in the room that you can ask a question by writing on a 3x5 card Matt where are we and online you can you can ask a question using the chat box function located below the video player and our our first question from the audience is for Ambassador Palmaschine and the question is the global COVID-19 pandemic has had an undeniable effect on diplomatic relations what has been revealed about the resilience of our hindrance to US-Tajik bilateral relations with regards to health and environment issues John thank you very much I would say certainly the pandemic continues to affect us all in many ways but you know in terms of our diplomacy I would say that the the Biden administration moved very quickly we were just talking about the c5 plus one secretary Blinken his first engagement with the c5 plus one was actually a virtual event due to the pandemic several months after becoming secretary of state and so it's really is hard to imagine that you know these meetings with the very senior level meetings can occur now because of technology and and having to deal with the pandemic hopefully that will also help us in the future in terms of our fluency with the technology and our ability to as Parviz was just suggesting you know pick up the pace a bit in certain areas but I would say that the in terms of US-Tajikistan cooperation on combating COVID-19 I would say that that has been a real story of resilience and success ambassador lu mentioned the 2.8 million doses that the United States has supplied a vaccine to the people of Tajikistan I would make a couple points there one that's close to 20% of the eligible population those eligible for vaccines in Tajikistan so it is really a significant effort and then I think one of the other speakers alluded to the fact that the government of Tajikistan has moved very effectively in terms of its rollout of the vaccine and we have a very close partnership there and a number of international organizations including UNICEF and others have worked very very hard to accomplish that and so I think that's really a global achievement it's an achievement of the Tajik government that that you know we were for example during our first once we did delivered our first tranche of vaccines we were getting reports within a couple days that there were mobile vans driving around in pioneers in villages and vaccinating people and you know those of you from my American colleagues those of you that have been to Tajikistan you know perhaps know that that is quite you know a logistical feat to to be so quickly out in villages and small cities around the country in very mountainous and difficult areas so I think that cooperation has really saved lives and is a credit to my colleagues who work in CDC and USAID and other places as well because a lot of effort went into that and it's not just vaccines it's laboratory equipment it's oxygen concentrators which are being delivered right now to ensure that not just for COVID but for future future needs that the this critical equipment will be in hospitals all around Tajikistan and I think I would characterize our cooperation there is absolutely excellent I just wanted to pick up on a point that Zuhar mentioned on the people to people ties because that is just incredibly important component of this relationship and we would be nowhere without NGOs and our civil societies our our brain trusts as Harvey said working together and I just wanted to mention in terms of COVID we you know our the medical community in the United States also really stepped up to help Tajikistan I remember I'll just tell a quick story here at the very beginning of the pandemic I turned on the the television and as we were all trying to figure out what is this COVID-19 what is this going to mean for us and there was a gentleman standing on the street in New York being interviewed by Tajik State TV and he was a doctor and he was speaking fluent Persian my Tajiki I'm working on it it's it's not where I would like it to be but I could understand enough to and he spoke for about a half an hour and 40 minutes on the pandemic and on what measures people should be taking and and and what people can do in their families to prevent from being infected and I have to say it was one of the best explanations that I had heard you know in all media on where we were at that point in the pandemic and this gentleman his name is Arash Ali he is an Iranian American doctor who's currently working in Southern California and he played an incredible role he and his the folks that he is working with in the United States in cooperating with the Ministry of Health into Tajikistan to to get the word out and and also save lives so that that is just incredibly important and I I finally had the chance of meeting Dr. Eli a few months ago and I have to say it is a real pleasure to see that our civil society that we are working on all levels and in all ways expert to expert when these types of global problems arise because that's really the only way to do it but I didn't want to give that particular example of that of that type of cooperation just very briefly on the environment because I know that and I would defer to my colleagues from Tajikistan on this question it's a huge priority I know for the government of Tajikistan but of course the Biden administration has prioritized climate mitigation and resilience as a national security imperative and so we're looking for ways that we can continue to work with Tajikistan in that area Assistant Secretary Liu mentioned the the highest solar plant in the world the 200 kilowatt morgue plant but we're also working in a number of other areas as well to you know whether it's hydropower or whether it's also working with farmers on crops that are climate smart agriculture crops that can preserve resources and improve yields and contribute to economic growth if we had more time I tell another story about agriculture because it really is one area where over the last decades the US and Tajikistan have really cooperated closely particularly in in the hot-loan area down in in the south of the country but all through the country in terms of our farmers and agricultural experts that have been able to to to work closely together on also introducing new crops into Tajikistan as well that have been quite successful such as such as cauliflower and strawberries the strawberry variants from California that have have done I've done quite well here but I won't tell the long story because I know that we're we're pushed on time so I'll stop there thank you again thank you just one yes if you allow thank you very much thank you Mr. Palmer Sham and I would like to express Tajikistan appreciation to government of the United States of America for the on-time support and providing to Tajikistan vaccines and the necessary equipment and it's very important and I would like to say is now situation with coronavirus in Tajikistan more or less manageable and the more than 90% of population already vaccinated and the thanks thanks to government and the United States of America and including through CDC and the USID you provide on time assistance thank you okay now we have a I'm going to combine two questions from ambassador Richard Hoagland how will Russia's invasion of Ukraine change Tajikistan's multi-vector foreign policy that has tried to balance Russia, China, EU and the United States will Dushan Bay seek closer relations with Beijing, Brussels, Washington and then from Janice Helwig of US Helsinki Commission how are the sanctions against Russia that have come from the invasion of Ukraine impacting Tajikistan ambassador would you like to address those I'll try but yeah thank you very much mr. Hoagland you know situation in region in Tajikistan and of course take into account our geographical location and now situation it's complex fragile and you would like to say what is now in going in in Ukraine is cause is serious concern since your empathy and we are convinced that sustainable peace can be achieved only through the use of political and diplomatic means and Tajikistan welcomes direct negotiation between Russia and the Ukrainian sites and we hope this negotiation in the shortest possible time will bring us a result mutually acceptable to parties and the put to end to hostilities very difficult situation and the as you know we Tajikistan small small economy and we are very we suffer a negative impact on the economy suffer impact of pandemic and they and also situation what happened now in the region and so we are we are as I say hope this direct negotiation will bring result mutual acceptable parties and so what I can say is high level delegation Tajik from Tajikistan will arrive on Monday to Washington and they plan to make negotiation with president of wall bank IMF and in treasury department in Fed reserve so our party will very closely work on this American side what is important is Mr. Hoagland is what we started before for strengthening starting for strengthening our independence and our border and the development and implementing reform in education and health we don't should stop this we should continue this and even on that time it's need more more stronger steps by US government in the Tajikistan in the region thank you thank you I want to ask a slightly different question that I think everyone in our panel can can respond to but I'll start with you Zura what do ordinary people in Tajikistan in the United States actually know about each other and what could be done to improve those stereotypes to make them more realistic do you have any thoughts on that well I think is it on right I think we have to mention that there is a saying in Tajikistan that the mountains do not reach each other but people do so it's all about communicating closer to have shared interest to really create mutual understanding when it comes to you know we mentioned about pandemic that now the technology allows to use that to really continue conversations and dialogues and deliberations about the issues of mutual interest that should be applied because during 30 years we learned from each other from the position of post-soviet or Soviet vision on what America is and we developed our own vision what America is and it's not really the same the population has their own take on what the United States represent either it's west or it's good or it's evil or it's you know many it's it's spectrum of the things but because there was less communication between people and there was less program on public diplomacy or actually people to people diplomacy and with the pandemic with all respect to digital transformation and I'm working on it I still think that human to human communication brings that feeling of trust that people can create the trust among each other shall we have more programs which would be mutually beneficial that the US United States citizens would know more about Tajikistan and of course everyone thinks about going to mountains you know it's tourism development cultural programs and etc and this is very good to have cultural programs and tourism development but it's also very important and I actually agree with the my colleague here to create the think tanks the mutual collaboration between think tanks to create mutual you know some sort of brain sharing brainstorming about the issues which are very important things are changed not only after Ukrainian war in Ukraine but things changed a little bit even before after ISIS you know development and etc and so these conversations deliberations would be very important with the Ukrainian impact is it's actually very dramatic in post-soviet countries as you may think the division of so-called the population about pro and con of this is a true like you know that there are many people who support many people who don't support and they have their own you know vision of what it is what they think but also we have labor migrants in Russia and we have been hearing from Asian Development Bank about the remittances fallout because economy of Russia is not doing well and people are also confused in the same time what it is the truth coming on social media how they have to distinguish the correct news and fake news what it is they should know how they should behave very complex situation it's not only in Tajikistan but in I was my I was talking with my colleagues in Central Asian Caucasus they have the same dilemmas and the same challenges so it means that they what is next in the next 30 years starting with this particular dilemma and chaos in our thinking and our vision what is future like is going to be next 10 years so I think it's a time of good brainstorming on different levels among the governments among civil society and the governments among businesses and among these citizens of different countries Tajikistan and the United States includes thank you I have been particularly worried about social media in the context of Central Asia over the last few years given how easy it is to spread disinformation and and how how poorly controlled and managed so social media is social media is a very unique you know dimension in our lives first it's very elite because of the access to internet not really spread throughout of the population in this country also the content is very limited in the local languages it's mainly in Russian which is accessible for our people and it's because of that situation we cannot really make a judgment on who are are they representing the whole public opinion the entire public opinion is it the reflection of the entire population's opinion in it so this social media in the same from one hand you may find a very good resources of information which will help to for you to make a judgment but from the other hand it also fuels some sort of different ideas which makes people to be very much confused and it's not only in in in our part of the world it inclusive of the United States you I mean I've been reading some of the stuff here it's it's very difficult but it comes to a point that what it is to be done and it's not only about young people it's about adults as well critical thinking very strong critical thinking skills which will help you to define what it is good and what it is not very good and how you behave in that regard and how you have your own citizens position so critical thinking would be very important to be actually enhanced in our country as well as you know on this school level on on on different other levels that would be given the citizens globally actually resilience to tell the new challenges that they're going to face next decades it's not it's just starting John did you want to respond to the question about mutual perceptions and and and what we can do to to to improve those that's a that's a freebie for public diplomacy I guess but yeah sure just very briefly yeah I think Zura really covered it well I agree with Zura with your excellent excellent points on this I would just know yeah the the pandemic has really impacted this as well because tourist arrivals including from the united states were way way up my first year here before the pandemic hit and I think what tourism does in in in addition to just letting people see the beauty the beauty of the country like or a country like Tajikistan right with the mountains and everything is that leads to connections that start over time and and and and you get interested in the in the in the economy and the way people are living and how you know how things could could happen and and then on the educational front of course our programs were massively impacted in terms of the ability to send targets to the US in terms of our ability to bring full riders and others into Tajikistan but I you know I think we need to get we're we're working very hard now and that traffic is is moving back rapidly to a to a decent pace and I'm extremely extremely happy about that as are many of my colleagues here at embassy Duchamp Bay and we're we're looking to even ramp up and see where we can where we can improve there it's and as certainly as you know as we come out of the pandemic you know seeing seeing more Americans over here as well I think we look forward to that as well on that you know whether it's in terms of educational programs or in terms of you know I was mentioning the agriculture we have a number of experts coming in there we have now restored you know concerts we have a US band coming in it's going to be touring the country so these are the types of things that you know sort of in normal times you know you can sometimes you know just assume this will all continue but as we now know you know when we lose these opportunities we lose an incredible amount and so I think I think that's that's something that we're going to be working on here in Duchamp Bay in the months ahead thanks and as a final question I'm going to combine two one from Sebastian Payrose from the Central Asia program at Georgia Washington University and from Brianna Todd of the Department of Defense which are very similar if you could ask one thing of the US what would it be or are there any sectors for cooperation in which Tajikistan would like the United States to be more involved yeah thank you yeah one sector is very important because of course I should mention about our excellent experience and cooperation with the United States of America on the fighting terrorism extremism drug and arms trafficking and crime and as well as illegal migration it's very important to continue even even and we should consider if we can consider about implementing a broader program in the same time I should mention is very important on this stage when when some people's of course a pessimistic and of course it's unpredictable situation or very quick changing situation in the world in the region so it's very difficult to make some decision and taking into account taking my experience in the past I remember crisis 2008-2009 if you remember it was most a finance economic crisis but now we also in the crisis now it's everywhere at least in our region we are suffering negative impact pandemic unpredictable situation in such a situation it's in our understanding that we now very closely collaborate in the United States of America to find opportunity to make better investment climate and attract attract investors from United States European Union to region to Tajikistan and it's very important when when it's a so pessimistic situation it's very important economic part of policy we should bring to a head and because it's important to to to see some success solution agreement signing trade and it's very important on this stage and we hope as I said before in Tajikistan we can consider together with United States of America to diversifying our portfolio economic portfolio trade portfolio with with separate countries and the portfolio on the investment also diversifying this structure of investment it's very important and in this stage very important of course different approach on different countries on investment on trades some countries put some conditions some countries without any conditions just would like to enter and to cover all market so different approach but take into account your experience and your your possibility and it's important to to consider consider of course Tajikistan maybe sometimes we can see far from the United States but consider how we can strengthen collaboration in one sector in economic trade and investment thank you we are out of time I want to thank our panel for participating and Ambassador Parmeshine for staying up late to to to be here today and and for you for attending in person I want to thank the audience for great questions and we hope to see you at our future events thank you