“We have discussed issues related to implementation of agreements on military and military-and-technical cooperation, including Russia’s support for modernization of the Armed Forces of Tajikistan. We have agreed to fully implement the action plans in compliance with the deadlines,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted at a joint press conference in Dushanbe today following his meeting with Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin.
According to him, this is very important given that threats to overall security persist.
“First of all, in the context of the situation that has been emerging in Afghanistan, in connection with the beginning of the withdrawal or at least the announced withdrawal of troops of the United States and NATO from this country. We are concerned over optimization of militants of international terrorist organizations in northern provinces of Afghanistan,” Lavrov said noting that Russia will provide Tajikistan with all assistance in combating terrorism, extremism and drug trafficking.
He noted that the Russian military deployed in Tajikistan is a factor of stability in Central Asia and added that Russia will provide assistance in constructing a modern frontier post on one of stretches of Tajikistan’s common border with Afghanistan.
The Russian military base deployed in Tajikistan is Russia's largest non-naval military facility outside the country. It was officially opened in Tajikistan in 2004 under a previous agreement, which was signed in 1993, and hosts Russia’s largest military contingent deployed abroad.
A total of some 7,000 Russian troops are now stationed at two military facilities collectively known as the 201st military base – in Dushanbe and Bokhtar (formerly Qurghon Teppa, some 100 kilometers from Dushanbe.
Meanwhile, Central Asian experts consider that military officials in Russia and Central Asia’s nations agree to unite efforts as they prepare for a worsening of the situation in Afghanistan.
According to them, the news of a full U.S. withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan by September reinvigorated Russia’s military attention to the Central Asian region. Russia maintains multifaceted military relations with the countries of the region, including under the framework of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a military alliance that includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan but not Uzbekistan or Turkmenistan. The recent events motivated the Russian Defense Ministry to make extra arrangements, and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu traveled to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to sign additional agreements to ensure its involvement should instability in Afghanistan envelope the region.
Russia’s concerns about the situation and the possible threat to regional stability have increased and the Russian Defense Ministry reportedly regularly brings up the precarious situation on the border between Central Asia and Afghanistan and uses it as a reason for continued cooperation and military exercises with the countries of the region.
