Tajikistan: Dushanbe Tightens Investment Ties with Afghanistan, Iran

Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Iran intend to set up a joint investment fund as part of an initiative to increase cooperation among Persian-speaking countries.

The agreement follows a meeting of deputy foreign ministers held in Tehran on August 2. The states also pledged to "fortify and expand" cooperation in a wide range of areas, including narcotics trafficking, education, healthcare, energy, infrastructure and culture.

"The legal bases for trilateral cooperation have been established to a large degree and the volume of trade and economic ties among the three countries has increased and come parallel with the three countries' good political ties," the Tehran Times quoted Iranian deputy foreign minister, Hussein Sheikh al-Islam, as saying on August 3.