Kyrgyzstan president signs law demarcating Kyrgyz-Uzbek border News
Kyrgyzstan president signs law demarcating Kyrgyz-Uzbek border

Kyrgyzstan President Almazbek Atambayev [official website] signed [RFE/RL report] an agreement Monday demarcating 85 percent of the 1,280 kilometer Kyrgyz-Uzbek border.

The Kyrgyzstan parliament [official website] had already approved the legislation early in September, but the president signing the “Draft Law on Ratification of the Agreement between the Kyrgyz Republic and the Republic of Uzbekistan on the Kyrgyz-Uzbek State Border” is a sign that the neighboring countries may be calming relations.

The meeting of the two countries in early September was hailed as a joint effort to end violence over the contested border, which have plagued both countries since the fall of the Soviet Union. Atambayev welcomed the delegation stating [IWPR report], “This is an event our people have been waiting for for more than 20 years”.

The change in relations has been credited to Atambayev and the change in leadership. With elections set for October, the countries could once again become combative. Though Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court in August upheld the rejection [JURIST report] of a petition to put opposition leader Omurbek Tekebaev on the ballot for the October presidential election.

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