Two joint Tajik-Uzbek commissions are expected to meet in Dushanbe tomorrow to discuss economic cooperation and borer delineation issues.
An Uzbek government delegation led by Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov is arriving in Dushanbe tomorrow for participation in works of join Tajik-Uzbek commissions to discuss trade and economic cooperation and hasten negotiations to resolve border delineation disputes.
The Tajik delegation will be led by Prime Minister Qohir Rasoulzoda, a source in the Tajik government told Asia-Plus in an interview.
According to him, Uzbek Prime Minister will be received by President Emomali Rahmon tomorrow.
While in Dushanbe, the Uzbek premier will also meet high-ranking Tajik state officials to lay groundwork for an official visit of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to Tajikistan.
Recall, the Tajik-Uzbek border delimitation talks have been stalled since 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 “Farhod” 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.
In November 2016, a working group began reviewing solutions to definitively outlining the 10 percent of the 1,333-kilometer border still under discussion.
Meanwhile, by government’s decree Tajik new border commission is headed by Prime Minister Qohir Rasoulzoda and its members include Azim Ibrohim, Deputy Prime Minister, Sirojiddin Aslov, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Rustam Shohmurod, Minister of Justice, Rajabboy Ahmadzoda, Chairperson of the State Committee on Land Management and Geodesy, and some other officials. In all, the list of the commission members includes nineteen persons.
