Indian PM starts first Tajik trip

By Monica Whitlock
BBC correspondent in Tashkent

The Indian Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, has arrived on his first-ever visit to Tajikistan.

Mr Vajpayee, who has just completed a three-day visit to Moscow, is expected to discuss trade issues with the Tajik President, Imomali Rakhmonov.

The highlight of Mr Vajpayee's trip is the unveiling of a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe.

The visit symbolises India's recent pursuit of closer ties with the landlocked countries of central Asia.

Transport corridor

For the Indians, it is a sign of renewed interest in a country less than 400 kilometres away across the Himalayas.

Their aims are economic and political.

Tajikistan is a springboard into Afghanistan; there has been an Indian military hospital on the Tajik-Afghan border for years.

Now there is talk of a transport corridor across northern Afghanistan into Iran to connect Central Asia with the Gulf and with the shipping lanes to Mumbai.

Such a grand plan, of course, will be hard to realise - but it shows how south and central Asia are growing in each other's sights.

Uzbekistan formally opened its border with Afghanistan on Sunday and there is an American plan to bridge the River Amu which runs between the Afghan and Tajik borderlands.

Legacy of trade

From the Tajik point of view, the visit is important.

Geographically isolated and poor, Tajikistan was also a very violent place throughout the 1990s and foreign grandees left it off their regional tours.

For Mr Vajpayee to pay a call shows how Tajikistan has moved forward.

Indian businessmen even plan to build the first five-star hotel in Dushanbe - a sign of more such visits to come.

Before the coming of the Soviet Union, there was vigorous trade between Northern India and the Tajiks - words like "chapatti" and "yogi" survive in the villages, a legacy of many centuries of commerce and travel across the mountains.