DUSHANBE, February 29, 2012, Asia-Plus  -- Deputies of the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) have ratified an agreement between Tajikistan and the Russian Federation on border cooperation issues.

A regular sitting of the third session of the Majlisi Namoyandagon of the fourth convocation, presided over by its head, Shukurjon Zuhurov, was held on February 29.

Presenting the document, Lieutenant-General Sherali Mirzo, Head of the Border Guard Directorate within Tajikistan’s State Committee for National Security (SCNS), noted that it, in particular, provided for keeping Russia’s presence in Tajikistan through the group of the border-guard cooperation of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) in Tajikistan, participation of Russian representatives in improving the border control system and ensuring border security of Tajikistan, training of personnel for Tajik border service as well as cooperation in countering terrorism, religious extremism, illegal migration and transnational organized crime.

This agreement was signed by President Emomali Rahmon and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev in Dushanbe on September 2, 2011.

Russia’s upper house (Federation Council) ratified the Russian-Tajik agreement on border cooperation issues on February 22.

The agreement is reportedly signed for five years with automatic prolongation for the next five-year period.

We will recall that Tajik and Russian border guards discussed a new draft agreement on the border-control cooperation issues last year.

When Russian border guards left Tajikistan in 2005 the two sides signed a five-year cooperation agreement that expired last year.  Russian border guards controlled the Tajik-Afghan border for more than 100 years before handing over responsibility to their Tajik colleagues in 2005.  But Russian boarder-guard advisers continue to be deployed in Tajikistan.

Negotiations that were conducted between Tajik and Russian border services last year focused on the status and tasks of those Russian border-guard advisers.