Prof. Marco Lombardi, director of ITSTIME and one of the founding members of INIS, together with prof. Laris Gaiser and dr. René Kanayama has held a series of meetings in Tashkent (Uzbekistan) and Dushanbee (Tajikistan) with academic and institutional authorities from the two countries.

In Tashkent he had the opportunity to meet, among others, Dr. Farkhod Tolipov, Director of the Research Institution “Bilim Karvoni”, and Senior Research Fellow of INIS.

Of particular interest was the meeting with Rakesh Kumar Verma, deputy director of RATS – Regional Anti Terrorism Structure of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), with whom we talked about the initiatives and possible collaborations between ITSTIME and SCO. In Dushanbee, the meeting with Ambassador Willy Kempe and representatives of the OSCE Politico-Military Department was significant, with whom the problems related to the radicalization processes in Tajikistan and the emerging problems on the border with Afghanistan were addressed.