Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have discussed the issue of full resumption of bus service between their cities.

A regular meeting of the Tajikistan-Uzbekistan joint commission on international road traffic took place in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent on January 12, according to the Ministry of Transport (MoT) of Uzbekistan.

The parties reportedly discussed issues related to the bilateral collaboration between the two countries in the field of international road traffic and the progress of implementation of agreements signed between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in this area.  

They also exchanged views on the issue of full resumption of bus traffic between the cities of the two countries, which had been disrupted after the coronavirus pandemic had been declared. Suspended in connection with the coronavirus pandemic, the Uzbek Transport Ministry press center notes. 

The meeting participants reportedly also discussed prospects of development of the Uzbekistan-Tajikistan-China transport corridor.  

The bus service between the cities of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan was restored on May 15, 2018 after a 26-year interruption, but the Uzbek authorities restricted road connections with other countries on March 16, 2020 due to the coronavirus crisis.  Uzbekistan began to gradually remove restrictions from September 1, 2021.   

In October 2021, the bus service between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan was partially restored.  Today, buses of Tajikistan’s transport company Asian Express run daily between the Tajik northern city of Khujand and Tashkent. 

As it had been reported earlier, Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin received Uzbek Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade Sardor Umurzakov on June 5 last year to discuss resumption of bus service between the Uzbek cities of Tashkent, Samarkand and Termez and the Tajik cities of Dushanbe, Khujnand and Panjakent as well as other major cities of the two countries.