Tashkent: The Prime Ministers of Russia, China and four ex-Soviet Central Asian states met today in the Uzbek capital Tashkent for talks on energy, trade and transport. The annual meeting was organised by the regional security bloc, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), and was part of a tour by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao through the former Soviet bloc.

After the signing of a joint communique, Russian Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov said that the main areas of discussion were pushing forward big projects in energy, transport and high technology. Russia has also proposed the establishment of an "energy club" to complement the SCO regional security bloc, said Ivan Materov, Russian deputy minister of industry and energy.

Ministers from India, Iran, Mongolia, Pakistan were also present, along with the vice-president of Afghanistan. Pilot projects to create a regional transport corridor linking Western Europe to the Asia Pacific region were a particular focus, the communique said. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao expressed China's readiness to finance projects in the region.

Source : PTI