DUSHANBE, February 19, 2011, Asia-Plus — The first round of negotiations between Tajikistan and Russia on control of the Tajik-Afghan border has ended.
Negotiations led by Sherali Mirzo, commander of Tajik border troops, and Anatoly Mikheyev, chief of the operational border group of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) in Tajikistan, took place in Dushanbe behind closed doors on February 17-19.
Khoushnoud Rahmatulloyev, a spokesman for the Main Border Troops Directorate of the State Committee for National Security (SCNS) of Tajikistan, told Asia-Plus that a new draft agreement on control of the Tajik-Afghan border was the focus of the negotiations. When Russian border guards left Tajikistan in 2005 the two sides signed a five-year cooperation agreement that has now expired and the expert groups considered the new draft agreement, he noted.
“Final decisions will be made during the next rounds of the negotiations that are expected to take place in March,” said Rahmatulloyev, “Therefore, it is still premature to speak about any results.”
In the meantime, a well-informed source told Asia-Plus that it could not be ruled out that the Russian operational border group would be withdrawn from Tajikistan.
We will recall that Russian border guards were stationed alongside the Tajik border until 2006, when the task of guarding the border was handed over to their Tajik counterparts and a small group of Russian experts still remain there as consultants to the Tajik border services.
This operational border group stays in Tajikistan to perform advisory functions and provide assistance to Tajik border guards in the effective border patrolling and training of border guards under the bilateral agreement that was signed on October 16, 2004. This agreement was ratified in February 2006.
