Historic Border Agreements and Intergovernmental Cooperation in the Fergana Valley Give Hope for Long-Term Peace

Apr 4, 2025 | Ilya Jones
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There has been a whirlwind of progress on building peace between the governments of Central Asia’s Fergana Valley region, where the borders of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan meet. Cooperation between civil society and citizens on all sides of the borders will help sustain progress. For those in Central Asia, recent developments in the border regions of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan would have been almost unimaginable a few years ago. For the first time ever, the presidents of these three nations gathered for a trilateral summit last month in Khujand, northern Tajikistan, to address decades of violent conflict and tension. In the landmark summit, the leaders embraced and spoke of their commitment to fostering neighbourly relations and cooperating in a range of areas – from transport and trade to infrastructure and business investment. As the presidents emphasised, the most important precondition for cooperation and connectivity is ensuring sustainable peace and further regional integration – and that all issues between them be resolved through peaceful dialogue.