The bilateral trade with Kyrgyzstan has decreased by 4 million U.S. dollars, Khurshed Karimzoda, the head of the Customs Service under the Government of Tajikistan, told reporters in Dushanbe on July 30.
“Transit of goods through the territory of this country has practically stopped. Long-distance trucks loaded with goods from Russia were passing through Kyrgyz territory. We have now found an alternative – trucks now come to Tajikistan through Uzbekistan,” Karimzoda said.
According to him, six semi-trucks with cargo bound for Tajikistan have been strained in Kyrgyzstan, “but the issue is being resolved.”
The border of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan has been the scene of unrest repeatedly since the collapse of the former Soviet Union.
Border talks between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan began in 2002. The countries share 976 kilometers of border – of which some 520 kilometers has reportedly been properly delineated, leading to tensions for the past 30 years.
The latest clash along Tajikistan’s common border with Kyrgyzstan that took place in late April was the bloodiest one in the region over the past 20 years. The countries have agreed a complete ceasefire after the worst violence in decades along the Tajik-Kyrgyz border that killed 55 people and wounded more than 300 other people.
The clash has reportedly brought mutual hostility from the previous local level to a national scale in both countries. Thus, in a recent study by the International Republican Institute, Kyrgyz society cited neighboring Tajikistan as the country with which they have the worst relations.
