Tajik parliament is expected to ratify a government-to-government agreement between Tajikistan and China on construction of a number of frontier posts along Tajikistan’s common border with Afghanistan within the next few days.
“The agreement was signed in Dushanbe on October 1. Under this agreement, China will finance and build ten frontier outposts of various sizes along the Tajik-Afghan border and one training center for Tajik border troops,” an official source at Tajikistan’s lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of parliament told Asia-Plus in an interview.
The source refrained from giving further details of the document.
Meanwhile, China has built one frontier outpost named “Gulkhan” on the Tajik-Afghan border in the Shamsiddin Shohin (formerly Shouroobod) district of Khatlon province earlier this year.
Tajikistan’s 1,345-kilometer common border with Afghanistan is a major concern for Dushanbe, as Afghan drug smugglers regularly clash with Tajik border guards and Afghan Taliban militants increase their activities along the border.
According to official statistics, China sells goods worth US$2.5 billion a year to Tajikistan.
China is one of the main investors in Tajikistan. Tajikistan now owes more than 1 billion U.S. dollars to China, which is nearly half of Tajikistan’s external debt.
