Dushanbe, Tashkent reach agreement on demarcation of the mutual border

Border talks between the government delegations of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan took place in Dushanbe from January 26 through January 30.

The parties reportedly agreed upon the schedule of meetings of the working groups during this year.  The schedule provides for holding meetings monthly, a source within the Tajik government told Asia-Plus in an interview.  

Tajik and Uzbek authorities have ordered their working groups to confirm the procedure of emplacement of boundary pillars along the mutual border by the end of this year, the source added. 

Recall, an interstate protocol on completion of delineation of Tajikistan-Uzbekistan border was signed in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent on January 8 last year.

The protocol has confirmed full agreement of the parties on depiction of the border between the two countries, but the coronavirus (CVOID-19) pandemic has made adjustments to the border demarcation process.  

The Tajik-Uzbek border delimitation talks had been stalled since February 2009 after Tajikistan rejected Uzbekistan’s proposal to give up some disputed lands to the Tajik side on condition that Tashkent will gain full control of “Farhod” water reservoir along the two countries border.

The first after a break of three yeas border talks between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan took place in Dushanbe on February 21-22, 2012.  On April 24, 2015, top border officials of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan met in the Tajik northern city of Khujand to discuss issues around protecting common borders in 2014 and ways of improving the processes of doing so in future.  In November 2016, a working group began reviewing solutions to definitively outlining the 16 percent of the 1,332-kilometer border.

During a visit of Uzbek Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov to Dushanbe that took place on January 10 of 2018, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan agreed to visa-free travel and other border-crossing measures.  The regulations also provide for the building of new checkpoints along the border and the opening of several bus links to connect the two nations' towns and cities.  The sides also reached an agreement regarding the disputed dam of the Soviet-era Farhod hydropower station along the border.  Under the accord, the land on which the station stands will be Tajik property, while the station itself -- including its equipment and infrastructure -- will be owned by Uzbekistan.

In late February 2018, Tajik and Uzbek working groups on delimitation and demarcation of the mutual border met in Tashkent to prepare an annex to a government-to-government agreement between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan on delineation of disputable stretches of the mutual border.

A government-to-government agreement between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan on separate sections of the Tajik-Uzbek border was signed in Dushanbe during Uzbek president’s state visit to Tajikistan in March 2018.  

On April 19, 2018, Tajik parliament ratified this agreement.

According to the State Committee for Land Management and Geodesy of Tajikistan, the Tajikistan-Uzbekistan border is 1,332 kilometers in length.