The Border Service of Kyrgyzstan announced on Friday the complete ceasefire, while Tajikistan confirmed that the two neighbouring countries agreed on a complete ceasefire at the border following talks.
After a series of clashes, both Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have agreed on a complete ceasefire at the border. The Kyrgyz and Tajik frontier communities regularly clash over land and water supplies, with border guards often involved.
On Friday, it was decided that all sides will withdraw the additional forces and vehicles sent to the border to their permanent deployment places. Moreover, the two nations agreed to open the Batken-Isfana highway to traffic and conduct joint patrols on the border areas by the law enforcement officers of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to prevent conflict.
The recent tension between the civilians of the two countries on Thursday turned into a conflict between the border guard soldiers. The area surrounding Tajikistan’s Vorukh, an enclave surrounded by Kyrgyz territory, remains a key flashpoint. Almost half of the pair’s 970-kilometre-long border is disputed and progress on delimitation in recent years has been glacial.
The border between the two former Soviet republics, both of which host Russian military bases and are closely allied with Moscow, is poorly demarcated. At least 49 people were killed in fighting between the two countries last April which escalated from a similar border clash and ignited fears of a wider conflict.
