Tajik President Emomali Rahmon and his Afghan counterpart Ashraf Ghani spoke by telephone on May 5 to discuss state and prospects of further expansion of bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and Afghanistan, according to the Tajik president’s official website. 

The two leaders reportedly exchanged views on the alarming situation in Afghanistan, including the situation that has emerged in Afghanistan’s northern regions bordering Tajikistan.  

A special attention was focused on issues related to military and technical cooperation as well as interaction between the two countries in addressing modern threats such as terrorism, extremism and drug trafficking as well in providing security along the mutual border.

The leaders of the two countries agreed to take joint measures in that direction.

Emomali Rahmon, in particular, noted that stabilization of situation in Afghanistan was a key factor of providing regional security.

Afghan president, for his part, appreciated Tajikistan’s support for economic reconstruction of Afghanistan and expressed special gratitude for favorable conditions organized for treatment of Afghan servicemen in hospitals in Tajikistan.  

Ashraf Ghani invited Emomali Rahmon to pay an official visit to Afghanistan at any convenient time.  

Meanwhile, conflicting reports are emerging about the fighting unfolding in Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province, in an area close to Tajikistan’s Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO).  

According to EurasiaNet.org, local people in GBAO’s Ishkashim district have reported that fighter jets patrolled the area on May 5-6.  The jets would beyond almost all certainty be from the Russian armed forces stationed in the country.

EurasiaNet.org says an Afghan security affairs researcher tweeting under the handle @DreamF4ll on May 6 cited sources in the Afghan National Security Forces as saying the Ishkashim district in Afghanistan’s Badakhshan has fallen completely to insurgent militants.

Meanwhile, officials in Tajikistan’s Ishkashim district have insisted that the fighting has primarily been raging at a relatively safe distance away, around 35 kilometers away from the border, in the Zebak district.    

Further to the west, in Afghanistan’s Kunduz province, local politicians have said Taliban fighters overran yet another district sharing a border with Tajikistan, Qala-e-Zal.

Afghan Tolo news agency reports a Kunduz provincial council member said the district had fallen to the Taliban on May 6 after two days of intense clashes.