Border services of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have begun studying the issue of opening new border crossing points (BCPs) along the mutual border
The initiative to open new BCPs along Tajikistan’s common border with Uzbekistan was voiced during the recent Tajik president’s state visit to Uzbekistan, a source in the Tajik government told Asia-Plus in an interview.
“According to the preliminary data, tree to fifteen new border crossing points will open along the Tajik-Uzbek border in the near future,” the source said, noting that they will not have international status.
Under a 2002 agreement, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan actually have 16 crossings along their shared border, with nine of them having international status. Almost all the BCPs had largely been inoperative as Uzbekistan had sealed the border crossing points along its common border with Tajikistan unilaterally in the 1990s. In the preceding eight years, only two BPCs having international status – “Dousti” in the Tursunzoda district (central Tajikistan) and “Fotehobod” in the Mastchoh district (Sughd province) — were available to the local population.
Things have taken a turn for the better, however, since Shavkat Mirziyoyev came to power in Uzbekistan in 2016. In March this year, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan reopened all sixteen border crossing points.
