Tajikistan's foreign minister says Dushanbe is expecting a Russian delegation to attend an international conference on water resources in Central Asia that it is hosting in June.
Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojidin Aslov made the comment on April 9 in Moscow, where he met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Access to water has been a source of tension among the five former Soviet republics in Central Asia -- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
The meeting in Dushanbe is scheduled for June 20-22.
Aslov also said that his country expected Russian support in setting up an antidrug hub in Tajikistan under the auspices of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a security grouping that comprises China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
Lavrov said that Russia and Tajikistan were strategic partners cooperating within various organizations including the SCO, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), and the Commonwealth of independent states (CIS).
