Tajikistan said it can’t manage the security situation along the border with Afghanistan without external assistance and has appealed to member nations of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Russia-led military alliance.

“Given the current situation in the region, as well as the remoteness and mountainous terrain of some parts of the border with Afghanistan, dealing with this challenge on our own seems difficult,” Hasan Sultonov, the Tajik representative at the CSTO, was quoted as saying by Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency.

“Therefore, we would like to call on the member states of the organization to contribute to the full implementation” of a 2013 resolution to provide assistance to Tajikistan in strengthening the Tajik-Afghan border, Sultonov said. 

The CSTO member nations include Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Russia. 

Meanwhile, Moscow pledged to defend its Central Asian allies threatened by the intensifying violence in Afghanistan. Earlier this week, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said that Moscow stood ready to provide Tajikistan with any assistance it needed.

Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said they were ready to use its military base in Tajikistan, its largest military base abroad, to ensure the security of its allies.

“We will do everything we can, including using the capabilities of the Russian military base on Tajikistan’s border with Afghanistan, to prevent any aggressive impulses toward our allies,”  Lavrov said.

The Taliban in the last two months has captured over 100 districts in northern Afghanistan, forcing over 1000 Afghan soldiers to take refuge in Tajikistan. According to the Tajikistan government, the insurgent group controls over two-thirds of the 1,357-km border with Afghanistan. 

(SAM)