On August 26, 2008, Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived in Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe for a state visit and to attend the 8th Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, scheduled for August 28.

At 17:20 local time, Hu's special plane arrived at Dushanbe Airport, where he was warmly welcomed by Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon and other officials.

In a written speech delivered at the airport, Hu said China and Tajikistan are friendly neighbors sharing common mountains and rivers. The traditional friendship between the two peoples goes back to ancient times. Since the two countries forged diplomatic ties 16 years ago, bilateral relations have witnessed smooth development with remarkable results achieved in political, economic, trade, security, humanities and other areas, he said. The two countries have comprehensively resolved border issues left over from history and signed a treaty of friendship and cooperation featuring good-neighborly relations, Hu noted. China and Tajikistan have also supported each other on major issues of mutual concern, and cooperated closely under multilateral frameworks including the SCO and the United Nations, so as to play a positive role in promoting regional peace and stability, he added.

During his stay in Dushanbe, President Hu will hold talks and meet with President Rakhmon and other Tajik leaders respectively, summing up the status quo of bilateral ties and blueprinting the development of bilateral ties. Both sides will also identify priorities and areas for cooperation in the next phase and exchange in-depth views on international and regional issues of common concern. "With concerted efforts made by both, the visit will be a complete success and Sino-Tajik good-neighborly, friendly and cooperative ties will be uplifted to a new level," he said.

Ling Jihua, Wang Huning, Dai Bingguo and other accompanying officials arrived by the same plane.

Chinese Ambassador to Tajikistan Zuo Xueliang and the staff of the embassy also greeted Hu and his entourage at the airport.

During the upcoming SCO summit, participating leaders will exchange views on current major international and regional issues and map out working priorities of SCO on security, economic and humanities cooperation and external exchanges.

Founded in June 2001, the SCO groups China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan with Mongolia, India, Pakistan and Iran as its observers.

Hu flew to Dushanbe by special plane from the ROK capital of Seoul after concluding a state visit to the Republic of Korea. Tajikistan is the second leg of Hu's three-nation tour, which will next take him to Turkmenistan.