DUSHANBE, March 9, 2015, Asia-Plus -- Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have reportedly signed a plan of joint work on solving border disputes for 2015.

Dushanbe and Bishkek resumed border talks and a session of the Tajik-Kyrgyz commission for demarcation and delimitation of disputable stretches of common border, co-chaired by Tajik deputy Prime Minister Murodali Alimardon and Kyrgyz Vice-Premier Abdyrahman Mamataliyev, took place in Dushanbe on March 5-8.

Subhiddin Muhiddinov, a senior adviser to the Tajik president’s press service, says the sides on March 7 signed the plan of joint work on solving border disputes for 2015.

According to him, the session members mainly considered two draft government-to-government agreements: a draft agreement on confidence building measures along the common border and a draft agreement on mutual use of cross-border roads.

Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Erlan Abyldayev was on an official visit to Tajikistan on February 9-11 to discuss cooperation issues with high-ranking Tajik state officials.  They, in particular, exchanged views on a draft government-to-government agreement between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan on strengthening confidence building measures along the common border.

We will recall that Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have been locked in a tense border dispute over Vorukh, an exclave of Tajikistan within Kyrgyzstan.

Kyrgyzstan has suggested using the maps of the periods of 1955-1959 for demarcation and delimitation of the disputable stretches of the border while Tajikistan has suggested working with documents and maps of the period of 1924-1927.  The maps of the early 1920s show the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic as incorporating Vorukh within its borders while the maps of the 1950s show Vorukh as an exclave within the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic.