Kazakhstan will provide military aid to Tajikistan to help bolster border defenses in the face of mounting security concerns in neighboring Afghanistan.
According to Tengri News website, Kazakhstan’s upper house (Senate) of parliament on April 11 approved the transfer of military equipment and ammunition to Tajikistan. The transfer is subject to final approval by the president.
Presenting the agreement to lawmakers, Deputy Defense Minister Talgat Mukhtarov reportedly assured them that the reallocation of military materiel would not degrade Kazakhstan’s defense capabilities.
He also said Kazakhstan would bear the cost of delivering military equipment by rail to the Tajik capital, Dushanbe.
Tajikistan will be responsible for customs clearance and has offered guarantees that none of the equipment will be reassigned to a third party, Mukhtarov added.
Members of the Kazakh Senate said that the military aid comes at a particularly sensitive moment.
“The situation on the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan is deteriorating every day — terrorists are trying to smuggle large quantities of drugs,” said Kazakh MP Talgat Musabayev.
An agreement on one-time military assistance to Tajikistan was reportedly signed between the countries in December last year.
Tajikistan and Kazakhstan share membership in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which also includes Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Russia, and in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a multilateral organization, which also includes China, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan among its members.
