Zardari reaches Tajikistan for regional security talks with Karzai

Dushanbe, Mar 25 (ANI): Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have arrived in Tajikistan for regional security talks with Afghan leader Hamid Karzai.

Zardari, who was accompanied by Interior Minister Rehman Malik and Senator Abbas Afridi, was received at Dushanbe airport by Prime Minister of Tajikistan Okil Okilov, The Express Tribune reports.

The leaders are due to meet their Tajik host Emomali Rahmon today (Sunday) along with a top US official to discuss the outcome of Karzai's February visit to Islamabad.

Presidents Zardari and Okilov are expected to discuss ways and means to further enhance bilateral, political, economic, defense and security relations. They will also reflect on the development of rail and road infrastructure and air connectivity between the two countries.

The weekend events are officially being staged in celebration of the Iranian New Year holiday Navroze.

The US embassy in Dushanbe, however, said that Washington's point-man on Afghanistan and Pakistan would be using the occasion to meet with Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Jawed Ludin and Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani on Sunday.

Reports suggest that US representative Marc Grossman will discuss efforts "to promote a credible Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process for reconciliation and durable peace in Afghanistan," the US embassy said in a statement. (ANI)