site.btaDeputy PM Zafirov Leads Delegation to Tajikistan

Deputy Prime Minister Atanas Zafirov and his delegation began their visit to Tajikistan with a working meeting with the Minister of Labour, Migration and Employment, Soleha Kholmahmadzoda, the government information service said on Wednesday.

During the three-day visit, Zafirov and Regional Development and Public Works Minister Ivan Ivanov will meet with Tajikistan's Prime Minister and First Deputy Prime Minister, the Ministers of Economic Development and Trade and of Industry and New Technologies.

They will also talk with the Assistant to the President for Economic Affairs, the Chairman of the State Committee for Investments and State Property Management, and the Chairman of the Committee on Tourism Development.

The highlight of the visit is the speech that Zafirov will deliver at the opening of the High-Level International Conference on Glacier Protection, which opens in Dushanbe on May 30.

The conference will be attended by 2,200 delegates from 65 countries and 70 international organizations.

It aims to draw the attention of the world community to the global problems of climate change and the rapid melting of glaciers.

Atanas Zafirov is the first Bulgarian official to visit Tajikistan in 18 years and the third in the 32-year history of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

During this entire period, not a single bilateral treaty has been signed, and there is practically no high-level dialogue between the two countries, the press release said.