DUSHANBE, March 5, 2011, Asia-Plus  -- Tajik Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov had a telephone conversation on March 3 to discus various aspects of bilateral relations between Tajikistan and the Russian Federation, according to the Tajik MFA information department.

The two, in particular, considered a number of issues related to military and border control cooperation between Tajikistan and Russia.

We will recall that the second round of negotiations between Tajikistan and Russia on control of the Tajik-Afghan border and a new draft agreement on border control cooperation that was launched here on March 3 is going on.  Like the first round this meeting is also being held behind closed doors.

The first round of negotiations led by Sherali Mirzo, commander of Tajik border troops, and Anatoly Mikheyev, chief of the operational border group of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) in Tajikistan, took place in Dushanbe on February 17-19.

When Russian border guards left Tajikistan in 2005 the two sides signed a five-year cooperation agreement that has now expired and the expert groups are considering the new draft agreement.

Russian border guards were stationed alongside the Tajik border until 2006, when the task of guarding the border was handed over to their Tajik counterparts and a small group of Russian experts still remain there as consultants to the Tajik border services.  This operational border group stays in Tajikistan under the bilateral agreement that was signed on October 16, 2004 and ratified in February 2006.

A well-informed source says it cannot not be ruled out that the Russian operational border group will be withdrawn from Tajikistan.