On March 22, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Tajikistan presented a note of protest to the Ambassador of Uzbekistan in Dushanbe due to interruptions of railway cargos headed for Tajikistan across the Uzbek border. Tajikistan’s Prime Minister Akil Akilov then complained to the international community about the situation on the Tajik-Uzbek border during his visit to the UN headquarters in New-York, stating that “Tashkent impedes the transit of goods to Tajikistan intentionally”. Finally, the president of Tajikistan appealed to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon during the latter’s official visit to Tajikistan, requesting help to resolve the conflict between the two countries.

According to Dushanbe, Uzbekistan started to interrupt railway transport to Tajikistan over two months ago, on February 2. Tajikistan claims that Tashkent’s hidden goal is to impede the delivery of materials needed for the construction of the Rogun hydropower station. It should be recalled that Uzbek authorities have demanded that Tajikistan stop the construction of what is to become the largest hydro-power station in Tajikistan, until evaluation by independent experts has guaranteed that it will not damage the ecological balance in Central Asia region.

Andrei Tropin, a representative of the state company “Tajik Railroads”, claims that “the blockade [sic] of Tajikistan started more than two months ago with the stopping of railcars with cement for the Rogun hydropower station”. According to him, currently about 2,000 railcars headed for Tajikistan are stopped not only on the border but along the whole railroad of Uzbekistan. The blocked cargos include not only equipment and machinery for the construction of Rogun, but also materials for an aluminum plant, fuel, wheat and other provisions and goods. Tajik authorities estimate losses in the range of several millions of dollars due to Uzbekistan’s blocking of railroad traffic.

Representatives of Tajikistan’s business community made a joint statement to the international community, expressing their discontent with the situation and asked for help to resolve it. In the statement, entrepreneurs say that they face serious difficulties in their businesses and bear significant losses due to the deliberate blockade of cargo passing through the territory of Uzbekistan to Tajikistan. Businessmen claim that the Uzbek authorities impede the transit of different types of cargo, including raw materials for enterprises of all kinds, fuels and inputs for the agricultural sector, medicine and food.

The statement signed by the chairmen of different business associations of Tajikistan, e.g. the association of banks, the association of farmers, the association of manufacturers and entrepreneurs, says that “Uzbekistan intentionally impedes the transit of fuels, fertilizers and other agricultural input going to Tajikistan in the run-up to the sowing season in Tajikistan, while about 70 percent of the population depends on agriculture for their livelihood”. The entrepreneurs think the most outrageous aspect is the impediment of deliveries of medical goods that “directly threatens the health and lives of the people of Tajikistan”. Finally, Tajik entrepreneurs believe that the current situation will negatively impact Tajikistan’s investment climate and business development since due to the delay in the delivery of goods; the entrepreneurs are not able to meet their commitments to investors and creditors.

In response, Uzbek officials state that the delay in cargo transit is caused by certain technical problems. A communiqué made by the Embassy of Uzbekistan in Dushanbe expresses the opinion of the Government of Uzbekistan that “there is no need to look for any policy-induced constraints”. The document says that “all the problems are of a technical nature and are caused by a significant increase in cargo traffic through Uzbekistan due to its fulfillment of obligations to provide transit for nonmilitary and humanitarian goods to Afghanistan”.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, who visited Dushanbe last week, called on Uzbekistan not to impede the transit of cargo to Tajikistan. In response to the appeal, Uzbekistan resumed traffic to Tajikistan. However, Tajik authorities continue to claim that the problem has not yet been resolved and that about 2,000 railcars are still blocked in Uzbekistan.

Experts describe the situation as another round in the ‘freezing of relations’ between the neighboring countries, and that the discord over the construction of the Rogun station is likely to further escalate the conflict between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Economic warfare is just another step in the escalation of the situation, while the conflict continues evolving with small cross-border incidents and constant mutual recriminations.