RASC News Agency: The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Tajikistan has recently announced that the Japanese government, through its International Cooperation Agency (JICA), will finance the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border management project. According to a report by the Central Asia Times newspaper published on Friday night, Feb 9, the objectives of this project include preventing drug trafficking from Afghanistan to Tajikistan and facilitating cross-border trade.
The “Border Management” project was initiated in early 2015 and is slated to continue until 2025. Since the inception of this project, a new border inspection post has been established at “Langar,” and under the project’s scope, old inspection posts at “Khamrogi and Shogun” have also been equipped. Meanwhile, regional countries, especially Tajikistan, have consistently regarded drug production and trafficking, along with the presence of terrorist groups in Afghanistan under the control of the Taliban, as alarming issues.
The Tajikistan Drug Control Agency previously stated that despite the Taliban’s claims of reducing drug production and trafficking from Afghanistan, there is no evidence of such reduction. The report indicates that drug production has commenced in clandestine laboratories in Afghanistan under the Taliban’s control, with these drugs being smuggled first into Tajikistan and subsequently transferred to other countries.
