Situation in Central Asian underbelly getting worse

The Central Asian region must not become a center of geopolitical confrontation of super powers, Sherali Hayrulloev, the Tajikistan president’s aide for national security, said at the 73rd meeting of the CIS Council of the Border Troops Commanders in Dushanbe Thursday, on June 18.

According to Hayrulloev, the threat of the international terrorism is growing day by day – “their methods are changing and improving; tension is growing, as they seek to establish a new world order.” The president’s aide said redistribution of the spheres of influence on the petroleum market continues, drug trafficking is expanding amid intensifying inter-ethnic and inter-confessional conflicts. “The Islamic fundamentalism is growing in its extreme form along with deteriorating inter-ethnic relations, which is fraught with military danger. The real military threat is now coming from the terrorist and extremist movements  - the Islamic State, Taliban, Al Qaeda that pursue establishment of the Islamic Caliphate – not from any countries,” said Colonel General Hayrulloev.

He is especially concerned over destabilization in the north and northwest of Afghanistan since late April and participation of terrorist groups in the military actions. “Their goal is to create hotbeds of tension and seize power by force. It is happening in the immediate proximity of the CIS southern borders running 2340km,” the colonel general said.

He said the radical-extremist groups pose a big threat to Central Asian countries. Those groups that comprise also the citizens of the Central Asian countries are fighting in the Middle East and Afghanistan and may easily destabilize the domestic political situation in the region upon their return.

“The forces that seek to unleash war near our borders and then also inside our countries will be using the most vulnerable problems – the disputable territories, the borders that still need delimitation and demarcation,” the president’s aide said. “We must do everything to settle all the border problems, establish good-neighbored relations to send more forces and means to the borders with the friendly counties and to the border with Afghanistan where the situation is growing extremely tense day by day.”