Good neighbourly relations and equal and constructive dialogue have always been priorities of the foreign policy of the Leadership of the Republic of Uzbekistan, writes Oleg Sherstnyov.
On the way of strengthening independence, sovereignty and preserving the original culture of their peoples, the countries of Central Asia realise that antagonism in certain areas cannot replace the need to join forces and constructive interaction in solving common large-scale tasks of development and strengthening of the economy and state security.
The President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev declared the Central Asian region a priority of the foreign policy of the New Uzbekistan.
President Mirziyoyev has a key role in the process of Central Asian integration. The meetings and formats initiated by the President of Uzbekistan created an opportunity for leaders of Central Asian states to openly discuss any issues and listen to their colleagues with considerations for partnership priorities.
Thanks to political will, within a short period of time, neighbouring countries in the Central Asian region began to listen to each other and jointly solve many long-standing problems. The initiatives of the president of Uzbekistan have formed a new political atmosphere in Central Asia, promoting open dialogue and strengthening mutually beneficial cooperation between the states of the region.
For many years, Uzbekistan has faced the problem of unsettled territorial and border disputes with its neighbouring countries. The Kyrgyz Republic was one of those countries with which Uzbekistan had a number of territorial disputes.
Incompleteness of demarcation of the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border has carried the risk of serious conflicts between the citizens of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. The passing of the border line in unsettled areas was contested by both parties; due to disagreements, it was not possible to reach a compromise for many years.
Residents of the border areas in the two neighbouring countries, often without waiting for the completion of the negotiation process on the delimitation and demarcation of borders, periodically made attempts to construct in unsettled areas various buildings (fences, walls, canals, etc.), which led to border clashes.
Border delimitation means determining the direction of the state border between neighbouring states through negotiations, and demarcation is the marking of the border line on the ground with special border signs.
Factors that contributed to the emergence of conflict between the border residents of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan were:
– incompleteness of the international legal formalisation of the state border between the two states;
– insufficient development of the state border and low technical equipment of border units. Due to the unresolved nature of this issue, border conflicts and incidents occurred at the border;
– the problem of unsettled borders sometimes becomes tense due to the problems of use transborder river, territorial disputes, smuggling, and illegal border crossings and illegal migration, population growth in border areas.
Border conflicts that arose due to the incompleteness of the process of delimitation and demarcation of borders interfered with the normal functioning of transport flows, the development of border territories, disrupted economic and cultural ties between communities, the investment attractiveness of these areas was lost, and interstate relations became aggravated and complicated.
Territorial disputes over the state border were settled by representatives of the parties in the following ways:
– through negotiations at the level of heads of border agencies, reaching agreements and making protocol decisions at this level;
– settlement of individual issues at the level of heads of regional, district administrations and local border representatives.
It should be noted that if at the early stages the delimitation process took place in mountainous and foothill sparsely populated areas, then at its final stages the specially created Intergovernmental Commission on Delimitation and Demarcation of the State Border between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan considered the disputed areas on flat terrain. This process directly affected the lands where people live, their houses and gardens are located. At the same time, none of them wanted to step back and give up the lands where their ancestors lived.
Despite these difficulties, as a result of painstaking and the hard work of specialists from the two states, under the direct control of the presidents of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, draft documents were prepared that resolved contradictions on disputed sections of the state border.
On November 17, 2022, the Parliament of Kyrgyzstan approved the ratification of the “Agreement on Certain Sections of the Kyrgyz-Uzbek Border” and “Agreement on joint management of water resources of the Kempir-Abad (Andijan) reservoir.” Three days earlier these documents were ratified by the Legislative Chamber of Oliy Majlis of Uzbekistan.
January 27, 2023, during the state visit of Sh. Mirziyoyev to Kyrgyzstan over 25 documents were signed by the presidents of the neighboring republics. One of the most important among them was the protocol on the exchange of instruments of ratification of the treaty between countries about certain sections of the Uzbek-Kyrgyz state border.
At a joint briefing for the media, the presidents of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan stated that the countries completed the border delimitation process and exchanged instruments of ratification.
The head of Uzbekistan Sh. Mirziyoyev announced the agreements on the delimitation of the borders of the countries a “historic event,” which “the peoples of the two republics have been waiting for many years.”
In turn, the President of the Kyrgyz Republic indicated that the final resolution of the border issue plays a key role in the further development of fraternal relations, strengthening cross-border contacts, and also contributes to strengthening stability and security in Central Asia.
Currently, appropriate work has been organized and carried out by groups of specialists from the two countries to demarcate the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border.
The agreements reached between the two parties play an important role in the development of bilateral cooperation between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Experts noted that the established dialogue marked the beginning of the restoration of trust between the two countries and gave the whole of Central Asia a chance to look like a single whole throughout the entire Eurasian space.
The Author, Oleg Sherstnyov, is a Public Intellectual of Uzbekistan.
