Tajik authorities call border talks with Kyrgyzstan encouraging

Tajik and Kyrgyz delegations met in the Tajik northern city at the end of the last week to continue negotiations on delimitated and demarcations of the shared border.

“A meeting was co-chaired by Tajik Deputy Prime Minister Azim Ibrohim and his Kyrgyz counterpart Jenish Razakov,” said a source close to the negotiating process.  “The parties, in particular, noted that Dushanbe and Bishkek have a common understanding and they have a desire to resolve this issue.”

According to him, the negotiations on this issue are encouraging as the border delineation issue is under the control of the presidents of the two countries.

The next meeting of the delegations is expected to take place in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek from February 14-15, the source added.  

As it had been reported earlier, Tajikistan is currently discussing proposals made by the Kyrgyz side and it can’t be ruled not that Tajik authorities will offer land plots in the Somoniyon village to Kyrgyzstan as part of a land-swap deal.

Dushanbe and Bishkek are discussing possible land exchanges to resolve long-festering border disputes.

Tajik and Kyrgyz officials resumed talks on border issues on January 14 following another round of clashes between Kyrgyz and Tajiks residing close to a disputed segment of the two countries’ share border.  The two sides reportedly agreed to start the process of a land swap along a disputed segment of the mutual border. 

The talks were held at a border checkpoint near the Tajik village of Guliston and the Kyrgyz village of Kyzyl-Bel in the southern Batken region.

Tajik Deputy Prime Minister Azim Ibrohim led the Tajik delegation at the talks and the Kyrgyz delegation was led Deputy Prime Minister Jenish Razakov.  

The sides reportedly signed a joint protocol, according to which a joint working group by February 15 will attempt to agree on the line of demarcation of the 114-kilometer border segment.  On March 1, they aim to define areas equal by size and significance for exchange.

The latest incident along the Tajik-Kyrgyz border took place on the night of January 9-10.  As usual, 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.