Drums were banged and trumpets blasted when emotional residents of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan crossed the border between the two countries for the first time in four years. For a long time Central Asia’s most volatile frontier has played host to deadly clashes. But in mid-March Sadyr Japarov, Kyrgyzstan’s president, and Emomali Rahmon, his Tajik counterpart, signed a treaty that brings to a close a three-decade dispute over where exactly the border runs. The first people to cross it tearfully embraced relatives living on the other side. The two presidents also sealed their deal with hugs.
The argument relates to lines that were drawn on the map a century ago, when Soviet apparatchiks decided what territory the five Central Asian republics (then part of the Soviet Union) should each control. When the USSR collapsed in 1991, the borders that Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan had been so briskly handed suddenly became unforgiving international frontiers. This carve-up left families divided. It also created a weird and unhelpful smattering of exclaves: land that belongs to one country but is entirely surrounded by the territory of another.
Border clashes, for example over water and pastureland, became commonplace. The most trivial skirmishes have involved little more than villagers throwing stones. But matters escalated swiftly in 2021, when soldiers from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan engaged in armed combat. Further conflict erupted the following year. These clashes cost more than 150 lives; that toll gave the leaders of both countries new impetus to solve the problem. So they have agreed to swap land along parts of their 1,000km border. They have labelled some areas as neutral zones and they have agreed that they will share control of a hotly contested sluice that draws precious water from a river for irrigation.
Not everyone is happy with the treaty, including some residents who are now facing relocation as a result of it. But António Guterres, secretary-general of the UN, has described it as a “historic achievement”. Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan say they hope trade between them will now soar—perhaps to $500m by 2030, up from a pitiful $12m in 2023.
The deal comes roughly two years after another landmark treaty settled a similar dispute between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. This outbreak of reasonableness is fairly novel; in the past, Central Asian countries have generally preferred to bicker rather than to co-operate. But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 has helped bring them much closer. They have a shared fear of Russian expansionism. They also spy a growing opportunity to forge global trade routes that skirt around their domineering neighbour. Resolving local squabbles will make it easier for the region to focus on the role it wants to play in the world. ■