Tajikistan has reportedly taken a ten-day pause in negotiations with Russia over the aviation dispute.
Russian Deputy Minister of Transport, Oleg Okulov, told reporters in Moscow yesterday that negotiations between Russia and Tajikistan over the air communication have been suspended but they will be resumed on April 22, according to the Russian news agency TASS.
“We are still in pause…what they informed me is that they [Tajik delegation] take a pause for ten days” the Russian deputy minister said answering the question about the negotiations results.
A Tajik delegation led by Deputy Transport Minister, Sherali Ganjalzoda, arrived Moscow for negotiations over the suspicion of flights by two Russian airlines to Tajikistan and by Tajik private air carrier to Moscow last Friday, April 7. The delegation returned to Dushanbe on Wednesday, April 12.
The Ministry of Transport of Tajikistan has refrained from giving comments on the negotiations results.
Recall, a flight by Tajikistan's privately owned airlines, Somon Air, to Moscow has been suspended after Russia announced it was barring the airline from flying to the Russian capital.
Somon Air has no longer been permitted to conduct its four weekly flights from Dushanbe to Moscow and three weekly flights from the northern city of Khujand to Moscow.
The Russian ministry said the ban was response to Tajikistan's refusal to allow Russian airline Yamal to fly to Dushanbe from the Zhukovsky airport outside Moscow.
Tajikistan has warned Russia that flights by two Russian airlines to Tajikistan will be barred as of April 6 unless Russia reverses a decision to bar flights to Moscow by Tajikistan's Somon Air.
The Tajik transport ministry sent a note to the Russian Transport Ministry on April 4, saying that it would bar flights by Russia's Ural Airlines and UTair to Dushanbe and the city of Khujand if Russia's March 31 decision on Somon Air was not revoked.
Tajikistan, however, has postponed the suspension of flights by Ural Airlines and UTair to Tajikistan after Russia's Transport Ministry invited Tajik aviation authorities to Moscow for negotiations.
The Tajik Transport Ministry said on April 6 that the implementation of the decision to bar the flights was suspended because the sides agreed to hold talks to resolve the situation.
The history of this dispute dates back to early November last year. The two countries faced the threat of suspension of flights in early November because of a dispute between Moscow and Dushanbe over the status of Russia’s Zhukovsky International Airport, which was officially opened in May 2016.
Dushanbe called for a revision of existing bilateral agreements on mutual air flights, saying that Zhukovsky is Moscow’s fourth international airport and that it has increased the number of flights from Moscow to Tajikistan.
The Russian civil aviation authorities insisted that the Zhukovsky International Airport is not under Moscow’s authority but of the town of Ramenskoye.
Tajikistan that time agreed only to flights for Ural Airlines and Tajik Air from the Zhukovsky Airport.
