China is urging Tajikistan to “take all necessary measures” to protect Chinese citizens and businesses in Tajikistan’s border area, where several Chinese workers were killed in a drone attack that was carried out from neighboring Afghanistan last week.
Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, meanwhile, met senior security officials in his government on Monday to discuss ways to strengthen security on the southern border with Afghanistan, whose ruling Taliban movement has expressed sorrow and promised to help find the attackers.
“According to reports from officials, during the past week two incidents of gunfire occurred across the border into Tajikistan, resulting in five deaths and five injuries,” Tajikistan’s presidential office said. It said Rahmon “strongly condemned the illegal and provocative actions of Afghan citizens” and ordered security officials “to resolve the issue and prevent the recurrence of such unfortunate incidents.”
The statement did not provide details on the five people who were killed. The government previously said a drone attack from Afghanistan targeted a camp housing company employees in Tajikistan’s southwestern Khatlon region last week, killing three Chinese workers.
The government meeting on Monday came a day after Chinese ambassador Guo Zhijun called Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin as well as a senior Tajik security official to discuss the border situation.
“Guo demanded that Tajikistan take all necessary measures to ensure the safety of Chinese enterprises and citizens in Tajikistan,” the Chinese embassy in Dushanbe said on Monday. It noted that Tajikistan said it “will immediately upgrade its security measures to protect the safety of Chinese enterprises and citizens to the fullest extent of the law.”
Chinese workers are involved in mining and construction projects in Tajikistan, which along with other countries in Central Asia is seeking to improve relations and develop trade with Afghanistan despite persistent security concerns. Tajikistan said that it used a drone to kill two suspected drug smugglers from Afghanistan in the border area last month. In August, Tajik guards and fighters from the Afghan Taliban exchanged fire.
Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has condemned the killings of the three Chinese workers last week and blamed that attack on “those seeking to create disorder, instability, & mistrust among the countries of the region.”
It said it “stands ready for information-sharing, technical collaboration, & joint assessments in order to identify those responsible for the incident.”
Separately, Afghanistan’s border to the east and south with Pakistan has been the focus of recent clashes between the two countries that killed dozens of people and disrupted trade. Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of providing sanctuary to militants who carry out attacks against Pakistani security forces, an allegation that the Taliban in Afghanistan denies.