President Dr Arif Alvi on Tuesday called for expansion of economic relations with Tajikistan, and said that steps should be taken to enhance trade and investment cooperation with Tajikistan for the mutual development of the two brotherly countries. The president said this while talking to Pakistan’s Ambassador-designate to Tajikistan Muhammad Saeed Sarwar who called on him at Aiwan-e-Sadr. The president mentioned that Pakistan had deep historical and cultural linkages with Tajikistan and Pakistan wanted to build enhanced, result-oriented and sustainable engagements with all the Central Asian States under its “Vision Central Asia” policy. He underscored that Pakistan remained committed to strengthening political, economic and energy connectivity with the Central Asia and that the CASA-1000 energy project was an important component of this strategy, President Secretariat Press Wing said in a press release. The president asked the ambassador to work for improving Pakistan’s image, besides expanding trade, energy, and commercial relations with the host country. He underlined the need for establishing academic linkages between the educational institutions of both countries, adding that Pakistan was offering online and distance education through the Virtual University of Pakistan and Allama Iqbal Open University, and Tajik students could benefit from it by getting access to their educational content.