DUSHANBE , May 29, Asia-Plus - On Sunday May 28, Tajikistan held celebrations to mark the 15 ^th anniversary of the formation of its border troops.  

Some 100 border guards as well as members of the country’s government, parliament and heads of power-wielding structures attended a ceremonial meeting that was held on this occasion at the “Kokhi Vahdat” State Complex in Dushanbe .  President Emomali Rahmonov addressed the meeting to congratulate Tajik border troops on their professional holiday.  

Addressing the meeting, President Rahmonov hailed activity of Tajik border guards on providing security and combating drug trafficking.  “Despite social and technical difficulties, Tajikistan has managed to form its border troops and the armed forces as a whole in short time,” the president said.  In his speech, President Rahmonov, particular, pointed to the necessity of toughening efforts to fight modern challenges and threats, including terrorism, extremism and drug trafficking.     

President Rahmonov noted that Tajikistan tops CIS in drug seizures.  Tajikistan stands in first place among CIS states in terms of the amount of contraband drugs seized and in fourth place globally, according to him.  However, Tajikistan is not the only conduit for Afghan narcotics, the Tajik president stressed, noting that a few part of Afghan drugs is traveling through Tajik territory.  “It is evident of the fact that at present drug dealers are using the Tajik territory lesser for smuggling Afghan drugs,” the president said, noting that 900 kilograms of drugs, with a half of them being heroin, have been intercepted in Tajikistan over the first four months of this year.

Rahmonov also noted that the country’s leadership was paying more attention to the issues of material and technical security of Tajik border guards.  On the issue of improvement of professionalism of Tajik border guards, Rahmonov noted that 10 teachers would arrive from the Russian Federation to teach at Tajik Border Officers’ Training Institute.  

In the meantime, reconstructed frontier post “Shirkent” was put into operation on the Tursunzoda stretch of Tajik-Uzbek border on the eve of a Tajik Border Troops Day, according to the source.  580,000 Somonis (equivalent to more than US$180,000) have been provided for reconstruction of this frontier post. 

The border service’s source has also noted that five other frontier posts are supposed to be constructed in near future: two of them will be stationed in the districts subordinate to the center and three others will be stationed on the Sughd stretch of Tajikistan ’s national border.  

A total length of Tajikistan ’s national border is 4,183 kilometers, including 488 kilometers of common border with China , 911-kilometer common border with Kyrgyzstan , 1,344-kilometer common border with Afghanistan and 1,440 kilometers of common border with Uzbekistan .  190 frontier posts are deployed along the whole perimeter of Tajikistan ’s national border.