DUSHANBE, March 25, 2009, Asia-Plus — A ceremony of exchange of ratification notes on government-to-government agreement between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan on state border was held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan in Tashkent on March 24, according to the Uzbek Embassy in Dushanbe.
Tajik Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Mr. Bobokhon Mahmadov, and Deputy Uzbek Foreign Minister, Bakhtiyor Islamov, exchanged the ratification notes, the source at the Uzbek Embassy said.
All necessary procedures have been fulfilled and in accordance with Article, the Agreement takes effect beginning on March 24, 2009, the source said.
The agreement confirms concerted line of the overwhelming part of the state border between the two countries. The next stage of work of the Tajik-Uzbek border commission includes completion of demarcation of Tajikistan’s common border with Uzbekistan at small stretches. This work is scheduled to be finished before the end of this year.
Ratification of the border agreement will promote further expansion of bilateral cooperation between the two fraternal states, the source at the Uzbek Embassy said.
Tajikistan’s common border with Uzbekistan is more than 1,106 kilometers in length. Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service on February 25 cited MP Abdumannon Kholiqov as saying that the agreement had settled 85 percent of the border land. The remaining 15 percent — consisting of four places along the border — is still disputed and open to discussion, Kholiqov said.
We will recall that Tajik-Uzbek joint commissions for economic cooperation and border lineation met in Dushanbe on February 18 to discuss cooperation issues.
Tajik experts say the agreement raises hopes for ending a long-standing territorial dispute and will ease the strained relations between the two countries and boost economic cooperation between them.
