Russian Emergencies Ministry Delegation To Meet With U.N. Representatives To Tajikistan

A delegation of the Russian emergencies ministry will hold a working meeting with representatives of the United Nations Food Program to Tajikistan on Saturday, December 22. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss further deliveries of humanitarian aid to the population of Northern Afghanistan and Tajikistan. The Russian government is planning to start railway deliveries of humanitarian aid in early January, 2002. The estimated cost of humanitarian aid that will be dispatched to Afghanistan by railway amounts to $8 million. As of December 22, 2001, Russian border guards let 960 Russian emergencies ministry trucks with grain load through the Ishkashim checkpoint on the Tajik-Afghan border alone. The grain was shipped to Faisabad, Afghanistan, under the UN World Food Program.