Tajikistan is currently exploring the issue of joining Schengen-like Silk Visa. Most likely, the Tajik government will make the final decision on this issue in the middle of 2019.
The Government is currently exploring the possibility of joining the ‘Silk visa’, objective of which is like the Schengen visa but for Central Asia’s nations, an official source in the Tajik government told Asia-Plus today morning.
“Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have agreed to launch the Silk Visa in February 2019. We will study the results of the project and mostly likely, the Tajik government will make the final decision on the issue of joining the Silk Visa in the middle of the next year,” the source said.
Meanwhile, Kazakh media report say that as part of ongoing efforts to introduce a single visa for all Central Asia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan agreed to launch a Silk Visa in early 2019.
The Schengen-like Silk Visa, which was initiated by the Chairperson of Kazakhstan’s Senate Committee for International Relations, Defense and Security, Dariga Nazarbayeva, will be officially launched in February 2019, Kazinform news agency reports.
The Silk Visa reportedly aims to break down barriers, bring people closer together and boost the economy and tourism in the region.
Tourism connected with the Great Silk Road has been experiencing a boom in the past few years in the Central Asian region.
According to reports, Kazakhstan also plans to bring Azerbaijan and Turkey into the Silk Visa as well in order to enlarge the area.
Recall, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan earlier this year abolished their strict visa regimes, which is expected to contribute to a unified visa scheme in the region
The head of the Association of Political Scientists of Tajikistan, Abdughani Mamadazimov, has pointed to the necessity of introducing such a visa for the Central Asian nations.
According to him, time has come to introduce the single multifunctional visa for the Central Asian region so that foreign citizens could travel to one or more of the Central Asian nations. It is necessary to introduce this visa step by step, Tajik expert noted.
