SECRETARY KERRY: Mr. President, thank you very much for your welcome, and I’m appreciative to my counterpart, the foreign minister, for his meeting. I really appreciate the fact that you decided to agree to this C5 meeting that we held, and I think it was a very productive meeting. We can talk about that some more.

But it’s a pleasure for me to be here in Tajikistan, and I look forward to talking to you about a number of issues that we share enormous concerns about. One, obviously, let me assure you the United States remains committed to a Tajikistan that is sovereign and secure and prosperous. We want to work with you on the economic challenge which we know is significant right now. We also want to continue to work, and even strengthen, the enormous amount of security cooperation that you’re engaged in. I think it’s fair to say that we have as much, if not more, security cooperation with Tajikistan than any other country of the region as we both are deeply concerned about the stability of Afghanistan, your border, counternarcotics, counterterrorism, and we’re grateful for your cooperation and efforts on that.

In addition, I want to say that we will, obviously, continue to work with you very closely on the connectivity issues of the region. I know what a challenge they are.

So that’s just a quick statement to begin with. I really want to hear from you.