Baku, Azerbaijan, April 19
By Fikret Dolukhanov – Trend:
Only a two-kilometer stretch of Tajikistan’s common border with Uzbekistan near the Farhod water reservoir still remains uncoordinated, a source in the Tajik government told Asia-Plus on April 19.
“The stretch is located at the junction of the borders of Tajikistan’s Sughd province and Uzbekistan’s Syrdarya region. There no any facilities or settlements in that area,” the source said.
According to him, the issue of that stretch would be officially solved during a state visit of Tajik President Emomali Rahmon to Uzbekistan, which is scheduled for early Autumn 2018.
Earlier, the Tajik-Uzbek border delimitation talks had been stalled since February 2009 after Tajikistan rejected Uzbekistan’s proposal to give up some disputed lands to the Tajik side on condition that Tashkent will gain full control of Farhod water reservoir along the two countries border.
The first border talks between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan after the three-year break took place in Dushanbe on Feb. 21-22, 2012. On April 24, 2015, officials of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan met in the northern Tajik city of Khujand to discuss issues around protecting common borders in 2014. In November 2016, a working group began considering solutions to definitively outline the 16 percent of the 1,332-kilometer border still under discussion.
During the visit of Uzbek Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov to Dushanbe that took place on Jan. 10, 2018, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan agreed to implement visa-free regime and other border-related measures. The regulations also provide for the building of new checkpoints along the border and the opening of several bus links to connect the two nations' towns and cities.
The sides also reached an agreement regarding the disputed dam of the Soviet-era Farhod water power station along the border. Under the accord, the land on which the station stands will be Tajik property, while the station itself, including its equipment and infrastructure, will be owned by Uzbekistan.
In late February 2018, Tajik and Uzbek working groups on delimitation and demarcation of the mutual border met in Tashkent to prepare an addition to a government-to-government agreement between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan on coordination of disputable stretches of the mutual border.
A government-to-government agreement between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan on certain sections of the Tajik-Uzbek border was signed in Dushanbe during Uzbek president’s state visit to Tajikistan in March 2018.
Lower house of the Tajik parliament is expected to ratify this agreement on April 19.
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