Tajikistan hopes that problems along Kyrgyz border will be resolved

Tajik authorities hope that the issue of preventing further escalation of tensions along the Tajik-Kyrgyz border will be resolved.As it had been reported earlier, Tajik and Kyrgyz delegation will meet in in the Tajik northern city of Isfara tomorrow to discuss the current situation along the Tajik-Kyrgyz border and measures to strengthen border security and prevent clashes between residents of the border areas of the two countries.“The Tajik delegation hopes that an agreement on preventing further escalation of tensions along the mutual border will be reached and the issue of bringing perpetrators of border clashes to justice will be resolved,” an official source within the Tajik government told Asia-Plus in an interview. A Tajik delegation will consist of senior representatives of the Prosecutor-General’s Office, State Committee for National Security (SCNS), Interior Ministry and some other relevant agencies and will be led by Deputy Prime Minister, Azim Ibrohim.A Kyrgyz delegation, comprising senior representatives of the Prosecutor-General’s Office, State Committee for National Security, State Border Service, Interior Ministry and some other relevant agencies, will be led by Vice-Premier, Jenish Razakov.The source further added that it could not be ruled out that separate meetings of heads of the Prosecutor’s Offices, Interior Ministries and border services of the two countries would take place in Isfara on the sidelines of the border talks.Meanwhile, working groups of the two counties, comprising experts, cartographers and geodesists, are continuing work on delimitating and demarcating the mutual border.  The meeting will take place in accordance with an agreement reached during a telephone conversation of Tajik President Emomali Rahmon with his Kyrgyz counterpart Sooronbay Jeenbekov that took place on January 11.  Both heads of state pointed to the necessity of continuing border talks.Recall, the latest incident along the Tajik-Kyrgyz border took place on the night of January-9-10.  Both sides blamed each other for the incident    It is to be noted that Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have not yet resolved the border delineation problem.  Many border areas in Central Asia have been disputed since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.  The situation is particularly complicated near the numerous exclaves in the Ferghana Valley, where the borders of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan meet.The border of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan has been the scene of unrest repeatedly since the collapse of the former Soviet Union.  The countries share 971 kilometers of border – of which only 504 kilometers has reportedly been properly delineated.Last year alone, there were at least fourteen cases of violence, in which six Tajik nationals and one Kyrgyz citizen were killed and more than 60 other people were injured.