Demarcation of Uzbek-Tajik state border to be completed soon

Working groups of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan reportedly intend to complete demarcation of mutual border until January 27, Asia-Plus said.

“The working group of the Uzbek government is currently in Dushanbe working with the working group of the Tajik government on completion of demarcation of the mutual border and the full demarcation of the Tajik-Uzbek border is expected to be completed until January 27,” a source in Tajik government told Asia-Plus today morning.  

The full delimitation of the Tajik-Uzbek border was completed last year. 

It should be recalled that President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed the law on ratification of a government-to-government agreement between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan on delineation of disputable stretches of the mutual border  in July last year. 

Uzbekistan’s lower house (Legislative Chamber) of parliament adopted the law on ratification of the mentioned agreement on May 31, 2018 and the Senate (Uzbekistan’s upper chamber of parliament) seconded it on June 28, 2018.  

Tajikistan’s lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of parliament (Majlisi Oli) ratified the government-to-government agreement between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan on delineation of disputable stretches of the mutual border on April 19, 2018.

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.

On April 24, 2015, top border officials of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan met in the Tajik city of Khujand to discuss issues around protecting common borders in 2014 and ways of improving the processes of doing so in future.  In November 2016, a working group began reviewing solutions to definitively outlining the 16 percent of the 1,332-kilometer border.

During the visit of Uzbek Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov to Dushanbe on January 10 last year, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan agreed to visa-free travel and other border-crossing 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” hydropower 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 annex to a government-to-government agreement between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan on delineation of disputable stretches of the mutual border.

A government-to-government agreement between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan on separate sections of the Tajik-Uzbek border was signed in Dushanbe during Uzbek president’s state visit to Tajikistan in March last year.