Kyrgyzstan President Sadyr Japarov stated that the countries of Central Asia should begin the process of introducing a visa-free regime between themselves.  He wrote this on his Facebook page.

He, in particular, noted that the border issue between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, which remained unresolved for 101 years (since 1924), has now been finally resolved, and “eternal peace” has been established in Central Asia.

“Now, the countries of Central Asia must begin the process of introducing a visa-free regime between themselves, and for guests from other countries, a single visa allowing free movement across all countries of the region, similar to the Schengen visa," Japarov wrote.

He also noted that the chief of the State Committee for National Security (GKNB) of Kyrgyzstan, Kamchybek Tashiyev, will present the signed agreement for ratification to the Jogorku Kenesh (Kyrgyzstan’s parliament) on March 19. 

Japarov added that until ratification, they “did not disclose many details of the document, as they did not want to disrupt the process before its signing.”  However, on March 19, Tashiyev will “explain every part of the agreement in detail, down to the smallest details” in Parliament.

“The state should not become a stage for politicians or activists who think: 'As long as I make a statement, earn points, and gather votes in the next election.' Each of them should be far from such an approach.

“We have been watching for 30 years how thoughtless statements by politicians lead to the failure of important initiatives.  How many useful projects have been stopped or set back because of this!  We, too, were MPs, politicians, and ministers.  But we never engaged in populism for the sake of attention.  In any issue, we carefully studied the situation, analyzed it, and only then raised the topic, making sure our words would not harm the state or the people.

“Similarly, in this border issue, we worked on it carefully for four years, measuring it 70 times,” the president writes.

Japarov added that the state will provide Kyrgyz citizens with "new, modern houses with much better conditions" in exchange for those they were forced to leave behind.