Opposition in Afghanistan a threat to neighbors - analyst
DUSHANBE. May 15 (Interfax) - The armed opposition in Afghanistan "is strengthening its positions," and its potential future confrontation with the government would inevitably affect the country's neighbors, the head of a Tajik political think tank said on Thursday.
"Since 2012, militants have been appearing at the western and northern borders of Afghanistan, closer to the borders of Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, and this is evidence that the Afghan armed opposition is strengthening its positions," Khudoberdi Khaliknazarov, director of the Tajikistan's Strategic Studies Center, said at a conference in Dushanbe that discussed the security role of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
"Central Asian countries may experience some forms of aggravation of the situation. International terrorist groups will definitely try to move their subversive activities from Afghanistan to the territory of neighboring countries," he said.
Tajikistan is the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) member with the longest border with Afghanistan - 1,344 kilometers.
Afghan drug traffickers use Tajikistan as a transit stage, and Tajik authorities yearly seize tonnes of Afghan drugs. Until now no Afghan armed group has made any serious attempt to break through into Tajikistan, but analysts believe this may change after NATO pulls out its forces from Afghanistan this year.
"In effect, militants are already penetrating the territory of CIS countries. We must be ready for such penetrations in future and be very vigilant," Khaliknazarov said.
He argued that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) would be able to prevent this.
"In order to avert these and other threats from Afghanistan collective measures must be taken with the use of CSTO forces and the financial resources of SCO member countries," he said. "The CSTO and SCO must combine forces to help settle the situation in Afghanistan."
Khaliknazarov's Strategic Studies Center is under direct jurisdiction of the Tajik president. It is an entity owned and financed by the state and is normally a government mouthpiece.