DUSHANBE, January 19, 2013, Asia-Plus — In the issue of demarcation of Tajikistan’s border borders with neighboring Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan we have reached the line, when it is necessary “to cut the cords that bind,” Tajik Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi announced at a news conference in Dushanbe on January 18.
According to him, in some areas, the non-demarcated border passes through settlements that makes solution to the problem more difficult.
“We are studying all documents regarding our borders with neighboring countries that were just administrative borders in Soviet times,” said Zarifi, “Therefore, I asked Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to help us get historical documents related to borders between former Soviet republics in Central Asia.”
The documents are needed to clarify Tajikistan’s borders with neighboring Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan in order to prevent problems like those experienced in Uzbekistan’s Sokh exclave in Kyrgyzstan, Tajik minister noted.
Parts of the borders between the five Central Asian republics that were established by Soviet authorities are still disputed.
On the relations of Tajikistan with Uzbekistan, Zarifi noted that improvement of them was of significant importance for peoples of both countries.
“If political circles of the two countries fail to reach agreement on existing problems, it does not mean relations between Tajiks and Uzbeks are bad, Tajik foreign minister stressed.
“We have offered the Uzbek side to lift visa regime imposed in 2000, but we have not yet got reply,” Zarifi said.
