DUSHANBE, February 13, 2014, Asia-Plus – Tajik delegation is expected to leave for the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek today afternoon for participating in a meeting of the Tajik-Kyrgyz intergovernmental commission for demarcation and delimitation of mutual border.
Co-chaired by Tajik Deputy Prime Minister Murodali Alimardon and Kyrgyz Deputy Prime Minister Tokon Mamytov, the commission will meet in Bishkek tomorrow to discuss the results of the work carried out by the joint working groups in disputed areas on the Isfara stretch of the Tajik-Kyrgyz border from February 5 to February 10, a well-informed source told Asia-Plus today afternoon.
We will recall that three working groups have been set up: 1) the group for military and border issues; 2) the group for the border demarcation and delimitation issues; and 3) the group for use of border roads.
On the Tajik side, the group for military and border issues is co-chaired by Sherali Khairulloyev, Aide to the President of Tajikistan for National Security Affairs, the group for the border demarcation and delimitation issues is co-chaired by Mahmadtohir Zokirov, Chairman of the State Committee on Land Management and Geodesy, and the group for use of border roads is co-chaired by Khairullo Asoyev, Minister of Transport.
As it had been reported earlier, Tajik Prime Minister Murodali Alimardon and his Kyrgyz counterpart, Tokon Mamytov, agreed in Bishkek on January 31 that the two countries” working groups on border delimitation must expedite their activities.
Five Kyrgyz border guards, one Kyrgyz policeman, and two Tajik border guards were hospitalized with injuries on January 11 after tensions escalated into exchanges of gunfire along the Kyrgyz-Tajik border. The clash started when Tajiks protested Kyrgyzstan’s construction of a bypass road through a disputed area. Tajikistan has requested to halt the construction of the road until the border is delimited.
