DUSHANBE, July 6, 2014, Asia-Plus — The next round of Tajik-Kyrgyz border talks is expected to take place in the Tajik northern city of Qairoqqum from July 7-8.
“A draft government-to-government agreement between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan on use of border roads will be a major topic of the talks,” an official source at the Sughd regional administration told Asia-Plus in an interview.
According to him, this draft agreement provides for a joint use of the roads Koktash-Aksai-Tamdyk and Isfara-Vorukh.
“The signing of this agreement is scheduled for September during an official visit of Kyrgyz president t Tajikistan,” the source said.
We will recall that a two-day meeting of the Tajik-Kyrgyz commission for demarcation and delimitation of disputed areas of mutual border concluded in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on July 3.
According to information posted on Kyrgyz government’s website, the meeting was presided over by Tajik Deputy Prime Minister Murodali Alimardon and Kyrgyz Deputy Prime Minister Abdyrakhman Mamataliyev and the sides coordinated the issue of construction of interchange of the roads Koktash-Aksai-Tamdyk-Kishemish and Isfara-Vorukh.
The sides reportedly agreed to simultaneously start construction of the mentioned roads beginning on July 10.
The sides also agreed to discuss a draft agreement between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan on national border.
The previous round of Tajik-Kyrgyz talks on demarcation and delimitation of disputable areas of the border took place in Kyrgyzstan’s Batken region in late June. Presided by over by Tajik Deputy Prime Minister Murodali Alimardon and his Kyrgyz counterpart Abdyrakhman Mamataliyev, the meeting reportedly discussed a draft agreement between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan on common border and issues related to construction of two bridges and the section of the road Kulundu-Maksat. Tajik and Kyrgyz deputy ministers also got acquainted with construction of the road Koktash-Aksai-Tamdyk-Kishemish, the source said, noting that the talks will continue in the near future.
A 130-square-kilometer fertile area around the village of Vorukh, which is populated by some 32,000 people, the vast majority of them Tajiks, is one disputed areas on the Tajik-Kyrgyz border. Legally, Vorukh is part of Tajikistan, but due to past redrawing of borders, it exists as an exclave some 20 kilometers inside Kyrgyzstan.
