Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan to sign border agreement

Uzbek and Kyrgyz government working groups on delimitation and demarcation of the two countries' borders held their next meeting on March 17-20, Uzbekistan's Foreign Ministry said March 24.

During the meeting held in the city of Kyrgyz in Kochkor-Ata, the parties continued reviewing the draft description of the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border line and related cartographic materials.

"The meeting which ended on the eve of Novruz, a holiday widely celebrated in both countries, was held in a friendly and constructive atmosphere," according to the ministry.

The parties are currently considering the possibility of signing a contract in the near future on the border sites which don't have any problematic issues.

Intensive talks on delimitation and demarcation of the Uzbek-Kyrgyz state border have been going on since late 2013 due to recent repeated conflicts on the two countries' common borders.

The previous meeting of the Uzbek-Kyrgyz delegations was held between February 28 and March 2, in the Uzbek city of Fergana.

Foreign experts believe the main difficulty in the talks is the presence of four Uzbek enclaves in Kyrgyzstan and one Kyrgyz enclave in Uzbekistan.

Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan have already delimited a 1058km length along the boundaries where the total length of the border is 1378.44 km. This is more than 70 percent of the total length of the two countries' borders.

About 50 border sites around 300 kilometres long remain non-delimited.

ANN.Az