Commercial flights have resumed between the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, and the Uzbek city of Bukhara amid improving ties between the two Central Asian neighbors.

A plane from the Tajik private airline SomonAir arrived in Bukhara’s international airport on August 6, the first commercial flight between the two cities in more than 25 years.

Flights between Dushanbe and the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, resumed in April 2017 after a quarter-century break.

SomonAir launched regular flights to the Uzbek city of Samarkand last month.

Passenger flights between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan were halted in 1992 when the Tajik civil war broke out.

Relations between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have been strained for years over disputes including transit routes, border security, and the sharing of water resources.

The ties began to improve after new Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev came to power in 2016, vowing to seek close ties with neighboring countries.

Tajikistan and Uzbekistan launched a regular bus service between Tashkent and the northern Tajik city of Khujand in May.

Officials in both counties say more flights and bus services connecting Tajik and Uzbek cities will be announced in the near future. </s> Only a two-kilometer stretch of Tajikistan’s common border with Uzbekistan near the Farhod water reservoir still remains uncoordinated, a source in the Tajik government told Asia-Plus on April 19.

“The stretch is located at the junction of the borders of Tajikistan’s Sughd province and Uzbekistan’s Syrdarya region. There no any facilities or settlements in that area,” the source said.

According to him, the issue of that stretch would be officially solved during a state visit of Tajik President Emomali Rahmon to Uzbekistan, which is scheduled for early Autumn 2018.

Earlier, the Tajik-Uzbek border delimitation talks had been stalled since February 2009 after Tajikistan rejected Uzbekistan’s proposal to give up some disputed lands to the Tajik side on condition that Tashkent will gain full control of Farhod water reservoir along the two countries border.

The first border talks between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan after the three-year break took place in Dushanbe on Feb. 21-22, 2012. On April 24, 2015, officials of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan met in the northern Tajik city of Khujand to discuss issues around protecting common borders in 2014. In November 2016, a working group began considering solutions to definitively outline the 16 percent of the 1,332-kilometer border still under discussion.

During the visit of Uzbek Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov to Dushanbe that took place on Jan. 10, 2018, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan agreed to implement visa-free regime and other border-related measures. The regulations also provide for the building of new checkpoints along the border and the opening of several bus links to connect the two nations' towns and cities.
Commercial flights have resumed between the Tajikistan capital, Dushanbe, and the Uzbekistan city of Bukhara amid improving ties.