DUSHANBE (TCA) — Uzbekistan Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov arrived in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, on January 10 for a two-day official visit. The trip comes after Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev last week announced his planned fence-mending visit to Tajikistan, whose exact date was not indicated.
Aripov and Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon discussed bilateral ties between the two Central Asian neighbors, RFE/RL’s Tajik Service reported.
Aripov and Rahmon discussed issues including the elimination of obstacles in trade, simplified border crossing for the neighboring countries’ citizens, decrease of taxes for goods transportation, reconstruction of the railway link, demining of some areas along the border, opening of a border checkpoint, and water use, the Tajik presidential press service said.
It said topics also included joint efforts to combat regional threats such as terrorism and extremism.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, ties between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have often been tense due to disagreements on issues including borders, water, energy resources, and transit routes.
In particular, Uzbekistan opposed the construction by Tajikistan of a giant Rogun hydro power plant’s dam which Tashkent said would decrease the water flow from Tajikistan to Uzbek cotton fields.
Relations have been warmer since the death of longtime Uzbek President Islam Karimov in 2016.
President Shavkat Mirziyoev, who took over after Karimov’s death, has said that improving ties with Uzbekistan’s neighbors is his major foreign-policy priority.
