Pakistan welcomes ceasefire agreement between Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has welcomed the recent ceasefire agreement between the governments of the Republic of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, ARY News reported on Monday.

The Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said in a statement, “We remain confident that both the countries would be able to resolve the issue amicably through dialogue and peaceful means.”

Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan had agreed what they called a complete ceasefire on Saturday after reports of fresh shooting and troop build-ups in the aftermath of border clashes earlier this week that killed 49 people, according to Reuters.

The heads of the countries’ state security bodies had announced the agreement in a joint briefing in Kyrgyzstan. The presidents of the two Central Asian nations also spoke on the phone on Saturday to discuss further steps, their offices said.

“The tragedy that happened in the border area must never happen again,” Saimumin Yatiyev, head of Tajikistan’s State National Security Committee, said as he stood next to his Kyrgyz counterpart Kamchybek Tashiyev.