Tajik President Imomali Rakhmonov has spent the last several days in Teheran, improving relations with its cultural, lingual, and geographic neighbor. While Rakhnomov stated that his visit was of “exclusively economic character,” Tajikistan’s president also paid his repsects to the late Imam Khomeini, and discussed regional matters with political and religious leaders in the country.

During his stay in Iran, in addition to attending the meeting on economic cooperation between Iran and Tajikistan, Rakhmonov called on the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, President Ahmadinejad, Majlis Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel and Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on matters of mutual concern as well as regional and international developments.

Rakhmonov picked an interesting time to fraternize with a country on the rocks with the West. Still, as argued in earlier posts, Tajikistan can probably safely pursue ties with a wide variety of countries without incurring the wrath of any of them. It is unlikely that there will be any serious change in political allegiances, despite the sever tension between Iran, the US, and Europe.

Pursuing economic ties with Iran is a smart move for Tajikistan. After all, countries do not get to choose their neighbors, and Iran has already made important investments into Tajikistan’s infrastructure. Rakhmonov’s strategy of building strong economic relationships with as many countries as possible is working well; expect to see even more.