Co-chaired by Head of the State Committee for National Security of Tajikistan (SCNS) Saimumin Yatimov and his Kyrgyz counterpart Kamchybek Tashiyev, a regular meeting of the Tajik-Kyrgyz intergovernmental commission on delimitation and demarcation of the mutual border took place in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, on November 14.

According to SCNS press center, discussed issues related to delineation of the disputed segments of Tajikistan’s common border with Kyrgyzstan.  

The meeting resulted in signing of a protocol and the parties agreed to hold the next meeting in Kyrgyzstan.   

No other details were made available. 

The border between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan is about 970 kilometers long and runs from the tripoint with Uzbekistan to the tripoint with China. 

Tajikistan’s common border with Kyrgyzstan has been the scene of unrest repeatedly since the collapse of the Soviet Union.  It has been difficult to demarcate the Tajik-Kyrgyz border because over the course of some 100 years Soviet mapmakers drew and redrew the border, incorporating land that had traditionally belonged to one people in the territory of the other Soviet republic.  Exclaves appeared and temporary land use agreements were signed.

All of this survived the collapse of the Soviet Union and people in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have various Soviet-era maps they use to justify their claim to specific areas along the border.

Border talks between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan began in 2002.  The border delineation problem has led to conflicts between rival ethnic communities.

To-date, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have held more than 170 meetings and negotiations on delimitation and demarcation of the common border.

Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov said in an exclusive interview with Kabar news agency on April 25 that “the parties have agreed on 600 kilometers [of the mutual border] and they have another 300 kilometers left to delimit and demarcate.”