DUSHANBE, April 25, 2011, Asia-Plus — On Monday April 25, President Emomali Rahmon received visiting China’s Minister of Public Security Meng Jianzhu.
In the course of the talks, the two considered a broad range of issues related to bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and China, Tajik presidential press service reported.
Tajik leader, in particular, noted that Tajikistan was satisfied with the level of cooperation with China, “which is a near neighbor, reliable partner and a staunch ally of Tajikistan.”
Rahmon and Meng reportedly highly appraised bilateral cooperation between the two countries in sectors like industry, transportation, construction and trade and considered it necessary to take adequate measure to ensure year-round operation of the Kulma crossing on the Tajik-Chinese border in Gorno Badakhshan and give it a status of international crossing.
The sides also discussed bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and China in fighting international terrorism, drug trafficking and transnational organized crime, the source said.
We will recall that since May 1, 2008, the Kulma crossing has operated every day, except weekends, from May though November.
Opened in 2004, the Tajik-China trade route runs from Khorog, the capital of Gorno Badakhshan in southeastern Tajikistan, over a high-altitude plateau and then down into China, where it ends in the city of Kashgar, 700 kilometers away.
As conditions are so tough at the Kulma border crossing, which is located on a mountain pass 4,400 meters high, until May 1 2008, the gateway had stayed open only 15 days out of every month, while from November through April it had been closed altogether.
Crossing Kulma Pass
Is the Kulma Pass border crossing restricted to Tajikistan and Chinese citizens or can foreign travelers cross from Tajikistan into China also?