Tajikistan asks NATO to help with Tajik-Afghan border protection
03/07/2007 18:50 DUSHANBE, July 3 (RIA Novosti) - Tajikistan has asked NATO forces to help it protect its national border with Afghanistan and combat drug trafficking, the country's foreign ministry said Tuesday.
The narcotics trade has become an acute problem for the impoverished Central Asian republic due to a continual flow of illegal drugs from neighboring Afghanistan, the world's largest supplier of heroin and opium.
The issue of Tajik-Afghan border protection was the main item on the agenda of talks between Tajikistan's Foreign Minister Khamrokhon Zarifi and NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in Brussels Monday.
The ministry said in a statement that Zarifi proposed considering using NATO potential to improve border and customs infrastructure among the 1,344-kilometer (835-mile) stretch of the border with Afghanistan.
NATO considers Tajikistan to be a reliable partner in the war against terrorism and in promoting stability in neighboring Afghanistan. The U.S. pledged earlier to provide nearly $14 million to bolster Tajikistan's border security and counter-narcotics programs.
Tajikistan hosts about 200 French troops and several aircraft that back NATO-led operations in Afghanistan.
Tajikistan's Foreign Ministry said in January that the NATO contingent would remain in the ex-Soviet Central Asian country until stability is restored in neighboring Afghanistan.
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