Afghanistan - Tajikistan Bridge Completion

The Afghanistan–Tajikistan border is in length and runs from the

tripoint A triple border, tripoint, trijunction, triple point, or tri-border area is a geography, geographical point at which the boundaries of three countries or Administrative division, subnational entities meet. There are 175 international tripoints ...

with

Uzbekistan , image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg , image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg , symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem , national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...

in the west to the tripoint with the

Xinjiang Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

in the east, almost entirely along the

Amu Darya The Amu Darya ( ),() also shortened to Amu and historically known as the Oxus ( ), is a major river in Central Asia, which flows through Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan. Rising in the Pamir Mountains, north of the Hindu Ku ...

, Pyanj and

Pamir River The Pamir River is a shared river located in the Badakhshan Province of Afghanistan and in the Gorno-Badakhshan in Tajikistan. It is a tributary of the Panj River, and forms the northern boundary of Afghanistan's Wakhan District. The river ha ...

s, except for the easternmost section along the

Wakhan Corridor The Wakhan Corridor (; ) is a narrow strip of territory in the Badakhshan province of Afghanistan. This corridor stretches eastward, connecting Afghanistan to Xinjiang, China. It also separates the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region of Tajiki ...

and divides the ethnic Tajik community into citizens of two separate countries.

Description

The border begins in the west at the tripoint with Uzbekistan on the Amu Darya. It continues along the

thalweg In geography, hydrography, and fluvial geomorphology, a thalweg or talweg () is the line or curve of lowest elevation within a valley or watercourse. Normally only the horizontal position of the curve is considered (as viewed on a map); the c ...

of this river, which flows in a broadly eastwards direction, until it reaches the junction with the

Vakhsh River The Vakhsh ( ; Tajik and ), also known as the Surkhob () in north-central Tajikistan and as the Kyzyl-Suu () in Kyrgyzstan, is a Central Asian river and one of the main rivers of Tajikistan. It is a tributary of the Amu Darya river.Pyanj river for , the surrounding area becoming increasingly mountainous as the river traces a huge horse-shoe shape, up to the confluence with the

near the Afghan village of Gaz Khun. The boundary follows the Pamir for eastwards as far as Lake Zorkul (Sir-i-kol). The boundary then goes overland for up to the Chinese tripoint, mainly following various mountain peaks and ridges. The border's eastern terminus is found at the Afghanistan-China-Tajikistan tripoint on Povalo-Shveikovskogo Peak ( zh, s=波万洛什维科夫斯基峰, p=Bōwànluò Shíwéikēfūsījī Fēng) / Kokrash Kol Peak (Kekelaqukaole Peak; zh, c=克克拉去考勒峰, p=Kèkèlāqùkǎolè Fēng). Much of the boundary is paralleled by Tajikistan's Pamir Highway.

History

The border was inherited from the old

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

-Afghan border, which largely took its current shape during the 19th century Anglo-Russian rivalry in Central Asia, known as the

Great Game The Great Game was a rivalry between the 19th-century British Empire, British and Russian Empire, Russian empires over influence in Central Asia, primarily in Emirate of Afghanistan, Afghanistan, Qajar Iran, Persia, and Tibet. The two colonia ...

. With the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

having

conquered Conquest involves the annexation or control of another entity's territory through war or coercion. Historically, conquests occurred frequently in the international system, and there were limited normative or legal prohibitions against conquest ...

the

Khanate of Khiva The Khanate of Khiva (, , uz-Latn-Cyrl, Xiva xonligi, Хива хонлиги, , ) was a Central Asian polity that existed in the historical region of Khwarazm, Khorezm from 1511 to 1920, except for a period of Afsharid Iran, Afsharid occupat ...

and the

Emirate of Bukhara The Emirate of Bukhara (, ) was a Muslims, Muslim-Uzbeks, Uzbek polity in Central Asia that existed from 1785 to 1920 in what is now Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. It occupied the land between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rive ...

, and with the

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

controlling the

British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

, the two powers agreed to leave Afghanistan as an independent

buffer state A buffer state is a country geographically lying between two rival or potentially hostile great powers. Its existence can sometimes be thought to prevent conflict between them. A buffer state is sometimes a mutually agreed upon area lying between t ...

between them. In 1873, Britain and Russia agreed on a rough formulation of the border, with the Amu Darya declared to be the border going east from the vicinity of the village of Khwaja Salar to Lake Zorku, with the

to remain in Afghanistan. The western section of the border (i.e. the bulk of the modern Afghan-Turkmen boundary) was to be determined at a later date by a boundary commission. Tensions mounted as the Russians expanded further into what is now Turkmenistan in the early 1880s, reaching a crisis with the

Panjdeh incident The Panjdeh incident (spelled Penjdeh in older accounts, and known in Russian historiography as the battle of the Kushka) was an armed engagement between the Emirate of Afghanistan and the Russian Empire in 1885 that led to a diplomatic crisi ...

(near Sandykachi in what is now Turkmenistan), an area claimed by Afghanistan. Discussions calmed the situation and a joint Anglo-Russian boundary commission demarcated the boundary as it is today over the period 1884–87. As the village of Khwaja Salar could no longer be identified it was agreed that the boundary should meet the Amu Darya in the vicinity of Khamiab, Afghanistan. The easternmost section of the border (now forming part of the Afghan-Tajik boundary) was not finally delimited until 1893–95, with the Afghans agreeing to waive any claims to lands north of the Amu Darya. This agreement also stipulated the position of the land border in section east of Lake Zorkul up to China, with a series of boundary pillars subsequently erected. In 1921, a Soviet-Afghan treaty was signed whereby Russia agreed "to hand over to Afghanistan the frontier districts which belonged to the latter in the last century, observing the principles of justice and self-determination of the population inhabiting the same." However, this treaty was never implemented, and was explicitly annulled by the Frontier Agreement of 1946, which kept the boundary as it was, with riverine islands to be subsequently allocated by a joint commission. The border area was extremely volatile in the 1990s due to the

Tajikistani Civil War The Tajikistani Civil War,, group=pron also known as the Tajik Civil War, began in May 1992 and ended in June 1997. Regional groups from the Garm and Gorno-Badakhshan regions of Tajikistan rose up against the newly formed government of Preside ...

and the Afghan Civil War. Security improved with the end of the Tajik war and the fall of the Taliban government in 2001; however the long, porous frontier remains poorly policed and is a major drug smuggling route. There have also been a number of incidents related to the

Taliban insurgency {{Infobox military conflict , partof = the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021), the Afghan conflict, and the War on terror , image = 2021 Taliban Offensive.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Map of th ...

in Afghanistan. Russia assisted with policing it before 2005, and China may now be assisting with border policing. Several new border crossing and bridges have built in recent years in an effort to boost trade and links, partly funded by foreign governments and the

Aga Khan Development Network The Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) is a network of private, non-denominational development agencies founded by the Aga Khan, with the primary focus of improving the quality of life in different regions of Asia and Africa. The network focuse ...

. In July 2021, many Afghan troops and government employees crossed the border into Tajikistan after the

2021 Taliban offensive The 2021 Taliban offensive was a Offensive (military), military offensive by the Taliban insurgent group and allied militants that led to the fall of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the end of the nearly 20-year War in Afghanistan (200 ...

. In response, Tajikistan's government stationed extra troops near the border.

Border crossings

* Sher Khan Bandar— Panji Poyon (road, see Tajik–Afghan bridge at Panji Poyon) * Shighnan—

Khorugh Khorog ( ), also Khorugh ( ) or Kharagh ( ), is the capital of Gorno-Badakhshan, Tajikistan. It is also the capital of the Shughnon District of Gorno-Badakhshan. It has a population of 30,500 (2020 ). Khorog is above sea level in the Pamir M ...

(road, see Tajik–Afghan bridge at Tem-Demogan) * Ishkashim— Ishkoshim (road) * Ai Khanoum—Kokul (ferry only) * Tajik-Afghan Friendship Bridge (road)

Settlements near the border

Afghanistan

* Baghri Kol * Kolukh Teppe * Sher Khan Bandar * Shah Ravan * Chichkeh * Dasht-e-Qaleh * Kvahan * Khosfav * Arakhat * Ishkashim

Tajikistan

* Ayvadzh * Panji Poyon * Dusty * Panj * Parkhar * Kishti Royen *

Qal'ai Khumb Qal'ai Khumb (, , ''Qal‘a‘i Xumb/Qal'haji Xumв'' — meaning ''fortress on the banks of the river of Khumb'') or ''Qal'a-i-Khum'', also ''Kalai-Khumb'' (transliterated from ), is a border town located in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region ...

* Kevron * Rushon * Bazhdu Pavdiv *

* Ishkoshim * Sinib

History maps

Historical English-language maps of the

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

Tajik SSR The Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic, also commonly known as Soviet Tajikistan, the Tajik SSR, TaSSR, or simply Tajikistan, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union which existed from 1929 to 1991 in Central Asia. The Tajik Re ...

border, mid to late 20th century: Txu-oclc-6654394-nj-42-4th-ed.jpg, Txu-oclc-6654394-nj-43-5th-ed.jpg,