Tajik border with Afghanistan should be reinforced as NATO withdraws troops - Rahmon
DUSHANBE. July 14 (Interfax) - Tajik President Emomali Rahmon on Monday ordered to tighten security on the country's 1,344-kilometer-lond border with Afghanistan as NATO anti-terrorist coalition troops are pulling out from the neighboring country.
"Given the withdrawal of the peacekeeping coalition forces from Afghanistan, as envisaged throughout this year, the country's government and security chiefs are obligated to implement whatever measures necessary with regard to training army units, improving military discipline, reinforcing the army's materiel and technical base and addressing the social protection issues of the military personnel," Rahmon said in a speech broadcast by national television channels.
"The Border Troops Main Directorate, along with other military agencies and relevant ministries and government departments, must resolve as quickly as possible the problem of a lack of professional border guard officers and ensure normal conditions for defending the national border," the Tajik president said.
For that to happen, we need, "as far as capabilities allow, to increase the number of border outposts and provide them with modern technical equipment," Rahmon said.
A number of experts fear growing tensions on the Tajik-Afghan border against the backdrop of the withdrawing NATO forces from Afghanistan. The members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization have pledged full support for Tajikistan, both with military hardware and personnel training outside the republic. Tajik border guards also get regular help from the United States.