DUSHANBE, February 17, 2011, Asia-Plus  -- A new draft agreement on cooperation between Tajikistan and Russia on border issues is a major topic of a meeting that is going on in Dushanbe today behind closed doors, reliable source at the Main Border Troops Directorate of the State Committee for National Security (SCNS) of Tajikistan told Asia-Plus.

According to him, the meeting has brought together representatives from border services and security councils of Tajikistan and Russian.  Tajik working group participating at the meeting is led by Sherali Mirzo, commander of border troops of Tajikistan, ad the Russian delegation members include Anatoly Mikheyev, chief of the operation group of Russia’s federal Security Service (FSB) in Tajikistan, representatives of the Russian Embassy in Dushanbe, FSB, etc.

We will recall that Maksim Peshkov, director of the CIS department at the Russian MFA and Russia''s ex-ambassador to Tajikistan, stated at a conference in Dushanbe in December 2010 that Russian border guards are up for returning to the Tajik-Afghan border if Tajikistan were to ask them to come back.

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 group of FSB stays in Tajikistan to perform advisory functions and provide assistance to Tajik border guards in the effective border patrolling and training of the young generation of border guards under the bilateral agreement that was signed on October 16, 2004.  This agreement was ratified in February 2006.

Experts say it cannot be ruled out that certain changes regarding the structure of the operation group will be made to the agreement.