Turkmenistan again banned the transit of freight trucks that carry goods to or from Tajikistan, the Tajik news site Akhbor reported .
Recall that on February 4, Turkmenistan stopped passing trucks across its borders to and from Tajikistan. On February 14, the head of the customs service of Tajikistan, Khurshed Karimzoda, told AsiaPlus that the first cars had already received permission to drive through Turkmenistan. All vehicles with cargo left the territory of Turkmenistan only on February 20.
However, according to Akhbor, from 4 to 27 March, the Turkmen side allowed the passage of only Tajik trucks of small capacity, and from March 27, completely closed the transit for all trucks. Now more than 40 Tajik trucks have accumulated at the Alat checkpoint.
The authorities of Tajikistan claim that their attempts to resolve the situation have come to nothing, because the Turkmen side does not want to deal with this issue. In Dushanbe, stuck Tajik drivers are offered to use a detour route through Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, which is 2900 kilometers longer than transit through Turkmenistan.
Cars that bring goods to other countries, for example, to Uzbekistan or Kyrgyzstan, enter the territory of Turkmenistan freely.
On March 19, it was reported that due to delays on the Turkmen border, Tajikistan was exploring the possibility of increasing freight traffic through the ports of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, bypassing Turkmenistan.
The likely reason for the stops of Tajik trucks on the Turkmen border is the discontent of Turkmenistan with the fact that Tajikistan has not begun to lay the TurkmenistanAfghanistanTajikistan railway (TAT).
Source: Chronicles of Turkmenistan