Tajikistan's Foreign Minister Khamrokhon Zarifi said the country highly values relations with Russia, China, and the United States, according to reports reaching here Saturday from Tajik capital of Dushanbe.

As a close neighbor, China is a good friend and reliable partner of Tajikistan, Zarifi told an interview by the country's national news agency Huovar that was published on Saturday.

Major road construction and electricity transmission projects are being carried out jointly between the two countries, while discussions on cooperation in transportation and agriculture are under way, said the minister.

Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon signed a Tajikistan-China good-neighborly cooperative agreement with China when he visited Beijing early this year, which marks a big stride forward in deepening and expanding their bilateral cooperation, he said.

On relations with Russia, Zarifi said common history, strategic responsibility and traditional relations have linked the two nations together and Russia is Tajikistan's largest trading partner and they have carried a lot of cooperation in education, military and other fields.

Zarifi praised ties with the United States, saying the bilateral relations is growing. Cooperation between Tajikistan and the U.S. has been carried out in combating drug trafficking, illegal trading of weapons and some other new threats.

The aid from the U.S. has helped his country in improving its security, investment environment, border defense and education among others, he said, adding that the cooperation between Tajikistan and the U.S. in Afghanistan's reconstruction is of geo-political strategic significance.

(Xinhua News Agency December 23, 2007)