Relations between
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 ...
and
Tajikistan
Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital city, capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, south, Uzbekistan to ...
began in 1992. Afghanistan maintains an embassy in
Dushanbe
Dushanbe is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Tajikistan. , Dushanbe had a population of 1,564,700, with this population being largely Tajiks, Tajik. Until 1929, the city was known in Russian as Dyushambe, and from 1929 to 1961 as St ...
and a consulate in
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 ...
. The current Afghanistan ambassador to Tajikistan is LTG.
Mohammad Zahir Aghbar. Tajikistan maintains an embassy in
Kabul
Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...
and a consulate in
Mazar-i-Sharif
Mazar-i-Sharīf ( ; Dari and ), also known as Mazar-e Sharīf or simply Mazar, is the fifth-largest city in Afghanistan by population, with the estimates varying from 500,000-680,000. It is the capital of Balkh province and is linked by highway ...
,
Fayzabad and
Kunduz
Kunduz (; ; ) is a city in northern Afghanistan and the capital of Kunduz Province. The city has an estimated population of about 268,893 as of 2015, making it about the List of cities in Afghanistan, seventh largest city of Afghanistan, and the ...
. The current Tajikistan ambassador to Afghanistan is Sharofiddin Imom.
History
The areas which form the two countries were once connected, especially during the
Samanid
The Samanid Empire () was a Persianate society, Persianate Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslim empire, ruled by a dynasty of Iranian peoples, Iranian ''dehqan'' origin. The empire was centred in Greater Khorasan, Khorasan and Transoxiana, at its greatest ...
,
Ghaznavid
The Ghaznavid dynasty ( ''Ġaznaviyān'') was a Persianate Muslim dynasty of Turkic ''mamluk'' origin. It ruled the Ghaznavid Empire or the Empire of Ghazni from 977 to 1186, which at its greatest extent, extended from the Oxus to the Indus Va ...
, and
Timurid periods. After a friendship treaty in 1750 between
Ahmad Shah Durrani
Ahmad Shāh Durrānī (; ; – 4 June 1772), also known as Ahmad Shāh Abdālī (), was the first ruler and founder of the Durrani Empire. He is often regarded as the founder of modern Afghanistan.
Throughout his reign, Ahmad Shah fought ov ...
of Afghanistan and
Mohammad Murad Beg of
Bukhara
Bukhara ( ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan by population, with 280,187 residents . It is the capital of Bukhara Region.
People have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, and t ...
, 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 ...
(Oxus River) became the official border of Afghanistan. Persian language is widely used in both countries, and there are slightly more Tajiks in Afghanistan than in Tajikistan.
Diplomatic relations between the two countries were established on June 15, 1992. The outbreak of 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 ...
complicated matters as most of Tajikistan's southern border region (
Khatlon
Khatlon Region (), one of the four provinces of Tajikistan, is the most populous of the four first-level administrative regions in the country. It is situated in the southwest of the country, between the Hisor Range, Hisor (Gissar) Range in the n ...
and
Gorno-Badakhshan
Gorno-Badakhshan, officially the Badakhshan Mountainous Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region in eastern Tajikistan, in the Pamir Mountains. It makes up nearly forty-five percent of the country's land area but only two percent of its popul ...
) was contested between Tajik government forces (and allied Russian border guards) and the
United Tajik Opposition
The United Tajik Opposition (UTO) was an alliance of liberal, nationalist and Islamist forces that officially banded together in 1993, after the most violent phase of the Tajik Civil War. The UTO fought against the pro-communist and Khujandi/ ...
, which was supported by forces of the
Islamic State of Afghanistan
The Islamic State of Afghanistan was established by the Peshawar Accords of 26 April 1992. Many Afghan mujahideen parties participated in its creation, after the fall of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, socialist government. Its power was ...
. During 1992, at least 80,000 Tajikistanis sought refuge in Afghanistan. The Tajik opposition leaders enjoyed the support of the Afghan government and based themselves there, mainly
Badakhshan Province
Badakhshan Province (Dari: بدخشان) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the northeastern part of the country. It is bordered by Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan in the north and the Pakistani regions of Lower and Upper C ...
. The
civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...
in Afghanistan had likewise caused refugee migration between the two countries, this time refugees from Afghanistan entering Tajikistan.

Tajikistan opened its embassy in Kabul when the
Karzai administration took control of Afghanistan. The consulate in Mazari Sharif was also opened in November of that year.
Presidents
Emomalii Rahmon of Tajikistan and
Hamid Karzai
Hamid Karzai (born 24 December 1957) is an Afghan politician who served as the fourth president of Afghanistan from 2002 to 2014, including as the first president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan from 2004 to 2014. He previously served a ...
of Afghanistan meet on the sidelines of the 2004
Economic Cooperation Organization
The Economic Cooperation Organization or ECO is a Eurasian political and economic intergovernmental organization that was founded in 1985 in Tehran by the leaders of Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey. It provides a platform to discuss ways to improve ...
summit held in Dushanbe. In April 2005 Rahmon made an official visit to Afghanistan.
[ Diplomatic, business and cultural ties between the two countries have been expanding ever since. There are approximately 6,500 Afghans in Tajikistan. Of these, about 500 are studying in different universities in Tajikistan.
]
Border issues
Afghanistan and Tajikistan share a roughly border, most of which is in rugged terrain and is poorly protected. Currently the porous border between the two countries is a major concern for both governments, as well as the international community. The border is a major route for drugs being smuggled from Afghanistan to Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
and Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
, and in mid-2009 the drug and insurgent-related violence around that border was increasing, amid militant insurgency in Pakistan
Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
's areas bordering Afghanistan.[ In November 2024 a likely drug-related attack happened near the Afghan border in Tajikistan, killing a Chinese worker.
Prior to the August 2021 takeover of Afghanistan by Taliban, transportation links between the two countries, such as the Afghanistan-Tajikistan Bridge, were slowly being rebuilt, often with help and financing from external governments.][
]
Energy
Several agreements have been signed between Afghanistan and Tajikistan concerning energy. A $500 million deal was signed in September 2007 to create an energy connection from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Afghanistan. Both Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are trying to develop their potentially vast hydroelectric
Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...
industry by selling it to South Asia
South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...
, and an energy link with Afghanistan is seen as the first step in such expansion.
The two governments have also agreed to construct a 1,000-megawatt hydroelectric plant
Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and also mo ...
on the Panj River
The Panj ( , ), traditionally known as the Ochus River, is a river in Afghanistan and Tajikistan and a tributary of the Amu Darya. The river is long and has a basin area of . . Its construction is funded by the World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...
, the Asian Development Bank
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank to promote social and economic development in Asia. The bank is headquartered in Metro Manila, Philippines and maintains 31 field offices around the world.
The bank was establishe ...
, the Islamic Development Bank
The Islamic Development Bank (, abbreviated as IsDB) is a multilateral development finance institution that is focused on Islamic finance for infrastructure development and located in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. There are 57 shareholding member st ...
.
President of Afghanistan
The President of Afghanistan and some of his officials had to leave Kabul after the Taliban took over the city on 15 August 2021. The Taliban had been defeating government forces in many parts of the country over the last few months. After a few days in Tajikistan, they moved to Oman and then the UAE. Like the rest of the world, Tajikistan has also not recognized Taliban as a legitimate government.
See also
* Foreign relations of Afghanistan
The foreign relations of Afghanistan are in a transitional phase since the 2021 fall of Kabul to the Taliban and the collapse of the internationally recognized Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. No country has recognised the new Taliban-run go ...
* Foreign relations of Tajikistan
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Afghanistan-Tajikistan Relations
Tajikistan
Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital city, capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, south, Uzbekistan to ...
Bilateral relations of Tajikistan