Bordyuzha declares improvement in Tajik-Kyrgyz border situation
DUSHANBE. Feb 20 (Interfax) - The situation along the Tajik-Kyrgyz border has stabilized and a joint commission is completing the border delimitation and demarcation, Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha told reporters on Thursday.
He is paying a one-day working visit to Tajikistan.
"The situation along the Tajik-Kyrgyz border has stabilized," Bordyuzha told reporters after he had met with Tajik President Emomali Rahmon.
"A lot has been done to achieve stabilization and a decision has been made that border guards will not use firearms on the border," the CSTO secretary general emphasized.
Two Tajik and five Kyrgyz border guards were injured in a shooting incident on the Tajik-Kyrgyz border on January 11, 2014. The authorities of both countries blamed each other for the incident. All the checkpoints along the 970-kilometer border closed for pedestrian and cargo traffic. There is still air traffic between the two capital cities.
"The deputy prime ministers of the two countries head the border delimitation and demarcation commission; this is extremely complex and extensive work, which requires an analysis of multiple archive documents. Events should not be forestalled," Bordyuzha stressed.
Dushanbe explained the shootout with Kyrgyzstan's wish to build a motorway, Koktash-Aksai-Tamdyk, across the Tajik exclave. Bishkek claims to own these lands. Many areas along the Tajik-Kyrgyz border are not delimitated, which results in conflicts between border guards and people living in border districts over pastures, croplands and water reservoirs.
Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are CSTO member countries alongside Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia.