Tajik Security Chief Visits Afghanistan To Discuss Regional Issues

The head of of Tajikistan’s State Committee for National Security, Saimumin Yatimov, has discussed regional issues and bilateral cooperation with his Afghan counterpart in Kabul.

The head of Afghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation, Abdullah Abdullah, wrote on Facebook on February 14 that he met with Yatimov and discussed ongoing intra-Afghan peace talks in Qatar’s capital, Doha, bilateral security cooperation, and the situation along the Afghan-Tajik border.

Abdullah’s aide, Mujibrahman Rahimi, wrote on Facebook that during the Abdullah-Yatimov talks, the two sides discussed the regional implications of the situation in Afghanistan and joint efforts against terrorism and extremism.

“Authorities in Central Asia, including Tajikistan, are concerned about the unclarity in the ongoing Afghan peace talks, the continuation of violence in Afghanistan, the activation of terrorist groups in Afghanistan’s north, and the growing illegal drugs smuggling via the Afghan-Tajik border,” Rahimi wrote.

Numerous clashes between Tajik border guards and Afghan drug traffickers have been reported by the media in both countries in recent years.

This is Yatimov’s second trip to Kabul since early September. Yatimov visited Kabul on September 9-11 last year.

On the eve of Yatimov’s visit to Kabul, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon and his Afghan counterpart, Ashraf Ghani, discussed regional issues and bilateral ties by telephone, the Tajik president’s press service said on February 15.

The Tajik-Afghan border is more than 1,340 kilometers long. Illegal drugs, mainly opium, transit from Afghanistan to Russia and further to Europe via Tajikistan and other Central Asian countries.