DUSHANBE, January 9, 2014, Asia-Plus — Border talks between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are continuing today in the Tajik northern city of Isfara.
Iqbol Teshayev, a spokesman for the Isfara mayor, says a Tajik delegation, led by Deputy Interior Minister, Major-General Iskandar Rajabov, and a Kyrgyz delegation, led by Deputy Interior Minister, Major-General Kursan Asanov, are conducting negotiations in Isfara today.
Delegation members reportedly include commanders of border troops of both countries, deputy governors of Tajikistan’s Sughd province and Kyrgyzstan’s Batken region, as well as heads of border districts.
The delegations are discussing interaction between the power-wilding structures of the two countries to ensure maintenance of public order in border areas, Teshayev said.
We will recall that Kyrgyz Deputy Prime Minister Tokon Mamytov heading a Kyrgyz delegation arrived in Dushanbe on January 7 to discuss with Tajik officials efforts to tackle escalating border tensions.
On the same day, a meeting of the delegations of the two countries, presided over by Tajik Deputy Prime Minister Murodali Alimardon and Kyrgyz Vice-Premier Tokon Mamytov, discussed border cooperation between Tajikistan’s Sughd province and Kyrgyzstan’s Batken region. The delegations reportedly determined the schedule of meetings of the government delegations and working groups in 2014.
The deputy prime ministers ordered border services and police departments of Sughd and Batken regions to meet in the Tajik northern city of Isfara on January 9 to discuss organization of a joint patrol of disputed segments of the Tajik-Kyrgyz border for the purpose of ensuring maintenance of public order, free movement of citizens and vehicles in border areas.
They sides also agreed to hold such meetings regularly and expressed readiness for further development and strengthening of border cooperation between the two countries in the spirit of traditional neighborliness and friendship
The border talks were initiated by the Kyrgyz authorities last month. We will recall that issues related to acceleration of the border demarcation process were discussed at a meeting of Murodali Alimardon and Tokon Mamytov that took place in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek on December 24.
Residents of the village of Ak-Say village in Kyrgyzstan’s Batken region blocked the Isfara-Vorukh highway, following an alleged arson attack that destroyed a teahouse belonging to a Kyrgyz citizen in a disputed area on December 17, 2013.
