Tajikistan plans to complete delimitation and demarcation of its common borders with Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan in the near future, Rajabboy Ahamdzoda, the head of the State Committee on Land Management and Geodesy of Tajikistan, told reporters in Dushanbe on July 17.
“We currently have very good relations with our neighbors and they are getting better from day to day,” said Ahmadzoda. “I believe the issue of delimitation and demarcation of our common borders with Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan will be solved in the near future.”
According to him, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have already delineated some 1,240 kilometers of their common border and it remains to delineate 93 kilometers of the Tajik-Uzbek border. “This border dispute will be resolved in the near future,” Ahmadzoda noted.
A total length of Tajikistan’s common border with Uzbekistan is 1,332 kilometers. The land border is 1,228 kilometers with 105 kilometers passing along the river. Mainly, disputable areas lie along the border between Spitamen and Zafarobod districts of Tajikistan and Bekabad district of Uzbekistan. One of the major disputable areas is the Farhad hydro power station on the Syrdarya River and its reservoir, which both states claim. The dam of the Farhad hydropower station regulates the supply of water to the irrigation canals that serve the farmland of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Recall, Dushanbe and Tashkent resume border talks on May 30 this year. Uzbekistan and Tajikistan government working groups on the delimitation and demarcation of the Uzbek-Tajik state border completed their meeting by signing the final protocol in Dushanbe. “Legal issues of passing the state border line through its separate uncoordinated areas were discussed at the meeting,” the Uzbek Foreign Ministry reported noting that, “the talks were held in a constructive spirit and a friendly atmosphere.” The details of the talks were not specified either by the Uzbek or Tajik sides – a similar reserved message was also posted on the website of the Tajik Foreign Ministry.
There are 16 border crossing points (BCPs) on Tajikistan’s common border with Uzbekistan; nine of them have an international status. Twelve BCPs on the Tajik-Uzbek border are located in the northern Sughd province and the remaining four BCPs are located in the southern Khatlon province and Tursunzoda district (central Tajikistan). Only two BPCs having international status function – “Dousti” in the Tursunzoda and “Fotehobod” in the Mastchoh district (Sughd province). Uzbekistan reportedly sealed the rest of the border crossing points unilaterally.
The Tajik-Uzbek border delimitation talks were stalled in February 2009 after Tajikistan rejected Uzbekistan’s proposal to give up some disputed lands to the Tajik side on condition that Tashkent will gain full control of “Farhad” water reservoir along the two countries border.
The first after a break of three yeas border talks between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan took place in Dushanbe on February 21-22, 2012.
On April 24, 2015, top border officials of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan met in the Tajik northern city of Khujand. The two sides reportedly discussed issues around protecting common borders in 2014 and ways of improving the processes of doing so in future. Those included prophylactic and explanatory activities among the population living in border zones; preventing illegal border crossing; upholding signed bilateral protocols on state border protection; and rapidly responding to conflicts, which must be resolved at the level of leaders in border zones via negotiations.
At the end of the meeting, the heads of the two delegations signed an agreement on efficient bilateral cooperation between the respective border services in 2015.
On November 14, 2016, working groups of the government delegations of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan gathered in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent to discuss issues related to delimitation and demarcation of disputable stretches of the mutual border. Practical issues of legal registration of the Uzbek-Tajik border were reportedly the focus of the meeting. The sides also exchanged views on separate disputable stretches of the border.
