Uzbekistan and Tajikistan talk up new era of amity
TASHKENT (TCA) — Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have signed a Strategic Partnership Treaty — a move unimaginable some two years ago and now made possible thanks to bridge-building efforts of Uzbek President Mirziyoyev. We are republishing this article on the issue, originally published by Eurasianet: For the first time since coming to power in the early 1990s, Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon traveled to Uzbekistan on a state visit. The occasion was billed as a historic, and even unexpected, breakthrough that would put to rest decades of ill-feeling between the fractious neighbors. “Who could have imagined this one-and-a-half years ago?” Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev asked rhetorically at a banquet event on the first evening of the visit. The tone was set as soon as Rahmon stepped off his plane August 17 onto a green carpet unfurled at Tashkent international airport, where he was met in person by Mirziyoyev. The pair immediately clinched in a tight embrace. Similar gestures of affection would be exchanged repeatedly throughout Rahmon’s two-day stay as the presidents routinely addressed one another as “dear friend” or “brother.” Dushanbe-based political analyst Abdughani Mamadazimov said this diplomatic thaw showed what regional players could achieve while larger geopolitical powers are otherwise distracted. “The main world players are busy with problems like Syria, the United States pulling out of the nuclear deal with Iran, and there is the ongoing issue of Ukraine,” Mamadazimov told Eurasianet. “They are all busy with other problems, and so the region is dealing with its own issues. All the initiatives have come from the region itself and are being supported by the local population.” In diplomatic terms, the most momentous document to emerge from the visit was the bilateral Strategic Partnership Treaty – an accord that will at a stroke turn the uneasiest of neighborships into what will on paper be a robust alliance. “The decision to upgrade interstate cooperation to a higher level of strategic partnership is a natural and logical result of the huge positive changes seen in our relationship,” Rahmon said, following one-on-one talks with his Uzbek counterpart. Another 27 bilateral governmental agreements addressed cooperation in industry, education, border security, agriculture and much else. The bad feelings between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have their roots in a number of long-standing recriminations. One stemmed from Tashkent’s unabashed interference in the civil war that tore Tajikistan apart in the 1990s. Most grievously, that involvement was aimed at backing foes of the regime in Dushanbe. In more recent years, Uzbekistan has been a staunch opponent of Tajikistan’s potentially epoch-defining Roghun hydroelectric dam. Tashkent has argued that the creation of the dam could imperil its agricultural heartland and that Tajikistan has no right to unilaterally exploit a shared water legacy. Uzbekistan has softened its rhetoric significantly on this front, however, even suggesting that it could get involved in the multibillion-dollar Roghun project. In a more modest gesture of intent, Mirziyoyev signaled on August 17 that Uzbekistan would participate in the construction of two hydroelectric stations on the Zeravshan River in...
