Z. M. KURBONOVA (Tajikistan) After the declaration of sovereignty, the Republic of Tajikistan (RT) faced the problem of unresolved border issues. First of all, this applied to the border with the People's Republic of China (PRC). Tajikistan inherited its territorial differences with China from the Soviet Union. Following the principle of succession adopted in international practice, Tajikistan undertook to establish the state border in those areas that were "disputed", and sometimes caused armed clashes and conflicts with China in Soviet times. DUSHANBE'S POSITION After the collapse of the Soviet Union, a joint delegation of Russia, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan was formed to negotiate with the PRC on border issues. An intergovernmental agreement on its establishment was signed by the Prime Ministers of these states in Minsk in September 1992. The document confirmed the previously reached agreements and principles of negotiations between the USSR delegation and the PRC. It also provided for the adoption by the Governments of each country of a resolution "On measures to ensure negotiations on border issues with the People's Republic of China". New States have appointed their own representatives to the delegation. The procedure for developing positions and approaches for conducting negotiations was determined, and a financial fund with equal participation of the parties was created.1 In their work, the Tajik part of the delegation was guided by the Declaration on the Foundations of Friendly Relations between Tajikistan and the People's Republic of China, signed in October 1993 in Beijing. Article 13 of this document states:: "The parties confirm the agreements previously reached in the Soviet-Chinese negotiations on border issues and will continue to discuss unresolved issues on the basis of agreements on the current border between the two countries, in accordance with generally recognized norms of international law, in the spirit of equal consultations, mutua ... Read more