Tajiks to Strengthen Border With Afghanistan

As the international troop withdrawal from Afghanistan draws closer, Tajikistan is trying to strengthen its long frontier with that country as a safeguard against attempts to export instability.

Since Tajikistan took over border protection from Russia, whose troops performed the role until 2005, it has sought donor funding to modernise and consolidate its defences.

New border posts have been built or are planned, but existing ones are in need of refurbishment. And the Tajik frontier force is still using obsolete arms, equipment and radios from the Soviet era. Its vehicles date mostly from the early 1980s.

The audio programme, in Russian and Tajik, went out on national radio stations in Tajikistan, as part of IWPR project work funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.