The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) will provide Tajikistan with all necessary assistance that will be requested by it in connection with the situation on its common border with Afghanistan, RIA Novosti said on June 28, citing CSTO spokesman Vladimir Zainetdinov.
In case of Tajikistan’s request for assistance, it will be provided with all the necessary assistance provided for by the Collective Security Treaty and the CSTO Charter,” Zainetdinov was quoted as saying.
At the same time, he noted that so far the country has not asked for help.
“So far, Tajikistan has not applied to the CSTO in connection with the situation that arose in Afghan areas bordering the country,” the SCTO spokesman said, according to RIA Novosti.
The CSTO Secretary-General Stanislav Zas is expected to visit Tajikistan in the near future to discuss the situation along the Tajik-Afghan border.
Meanwhile, some media reports say Taliban militants have forced more Afghan soldiers to flee into Tajikistan.
Another group of Afghan government soldiers has fled across the border into Tajikistan as Taliban militants press an offensive across swaths of northern Afghanistan, according to Radio Liberty.
Tajikistan’s border service said that 17 Afghan soldiers fled into the country on June 27 after Taliban militants attacked a border checkpoint located in the town of Chukchuk, in the Kaldor district in Balkh Province, Tajikistan's state media reported.
"The Tajik border guards, guided by the principles of humanism and good neighborliness, allowed the Afghan military who broke through the state border to freely enter their territory," Khovar state media said.
The Taliban have taken control of dozens of districts from government forces in recent weeks as U.S.-led international forces withdraw from Afghanistan ahead of a self-imposed September 11 deadline.
On June 27, Taliban militants captured more than 50 members of the country’s security force in the central province of Maidan Wardak, a senior police commander told RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan.
In the past week, the Taliban have seized Afghanistan's main border crossing with Tajikistan, and pressed an offensive on the northern cities of Kunduz and Mazar-i Sharif.
The capture of the border crossing sent 134 Afghan soldiers fleeing into Tajikistan.
Tajik authorities say that they are preparing for a possible influx of refugees.
