DUSHANBE, February 22, Asia-Plus -- Russian President Vladimir Putin has already submitted a Russian-Tajik border cooperation agreement to the Russian State Duma (Russia’s lower chamber of parliament) for ratification and it is planned to ratify the document today.  

Putin appointed Vladimir Pronichev, the head of the Russian border service, as the presidential representative during the consideration of the agreement in the Russian parliament.

We will recall that the agreement was singed in Dushanbe on October 6, 2004.  Under the bilateral agreement that was signed on October 16, 2004, an operational group of the Federal Security Service will stay in Tajikistan to perform advisory functions, provide assistance to Tajik border guards in the effective border patrolling and training of the young generation of border guards.

Erkin Tojiboyev, head of the department for international ties within the Committee for the Protection of the State Border of Tajikistan, has told Asia-Plus that he believes that the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) also will ratify this important document.  

The document is aimed at creation of legal foundation of long-term cooperation between border services of the two countries in protecting external borders of the CIS, as well as fighting trafficking in drugs and weapons, according to him.