Baku, Azerbaijan, March 13
By Fikret Dolukhanov – Trend:
Uzbek and Tajik citizens are not allowed to cross the interstate border without a visa, because the corresponding agreement between the two countries hasn’t come into force yet and has to be ratified first, the TajikTA state news agency reported citing the Uzbek Foreign Ministry.
Many citizens of both countries came to the border checkpoints, willing to visit the neighboring state, after the intergovernmental agreement “On mutual visits of residents of two states” had been signed during the official visit of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to Tajikistan.
“Indeed, the aforementioned agreement signed in Dushanbe on March 9 provides for admission of citizens of the two countries to each other’s territory without visa during a month. But the agreement has to be ratified by the parliament of both countries first. It will come into force only after an official exchange of the ratification documents,” a source in the Tajik Foreign Ministry told the Tajik agency.
The ratification and the documents exchange, according to the source, will be carried out in a month, although the agreement mentions that the sides will prepare required documents in three months.
For now, the citizens are allowed to stay on another country’s territory for no more than 5 days.