On Friday, June 2, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon  met with his Kyrgyz counterpart Sadyr Japarov in Kyrgyzstan’s resort town of Cholpon-Ata on the sidelines of the second European Union – Central Asia summit.  

The Tajik president’s official website says the parties discussed issues related to delimitation and demarcation of the disputed stretches of the Tajik-Kyrgyz border.  

The presidents reportedly expressed satisfaction with the achieved results of negotiations on the draft borderline for around 626 kilometers, with 102 kilometers of which were delineated over the past 1 ½ years.   

Both parties spoke for continuation of talks and search of mutually acceptable solutions on the basis of mutual trust and respect, the Tajik president’s official website says.

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Confirming the importance of maintaining the ties of friendship and good neighborliness between the two countries, the leaders of the two countries spoke in favor of resolving all emerging issues exclusively by political and diplomatic means. 

Rahmon and Japarov also discussed state and prospects of further expansion of bilateral political, economic, cultural and humanitarian cooperation between their countries and exchanged views on a number of regional and international issues being of mutual interest.  

It is to be noted that the current configuration of Tajikistan’s common border with Kyrgyzstan is the product of Soviet mapmakers drawing the dividing lines for Soviet republics.  After the Soviet Union collapsed in late 1991, these became the borders of independent nations.  The situation is particularly complicated near the numerous exclaves in the Fergana Valley, where the borders of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan meet.

The issue of demarcation and delimitation of the mutual border between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan has been going for more than 20 years.

The border of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan has been the scene of unrest repeatedly since the collapse of the former Soviet Union.

The September 14-17, 2022 violence marked the worst hostilities between the two countries, which have had more than 140 border-related conflicts in the past decade.