Shoigu says Russian 201st military base will provide assistance to Tajikistan in case of threat

Russia will bolster Central Asian ally Tajikistan’s military with weapons, equipment and training amid a “deteriorating” situation in neighboring Afghanistan, Moscow’s defense minister said Wednesday on a visit to the country.

Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan will hold joint military drills next week near Tajikistan’s border with Afghanistan, where the Taliban has made huge military gains and claims to control 90% of the country’s borders.

Speaking in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe where he met his counterpart Sherali Mirzo, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said Moscow had organized additional supplies of weaponry and equipment to bolster Tajikistan’s army.

“We continue to train qualified Tajik military personnel. We prepare them both at our military universities and at the 201st Russian military base” Shoigu said, referring to Moscow’s base in the country.

Shoigu, who blamed the worsening security situation on the “hasty” withdrawal of US forces, said Moscow was ready to offer “any necessary help to (our) Tajikistan friends.”

Afghanistan’s government in Kabul has dismissed as a lie the Taliban’s claim of near-total border control.

But the militants last month seized control of Afghanistan’s main Shir Khan Bandar border crossing with Tajikistan, following battles that sent several hundred soldiers from Afghanistan’s national army retreating into the ex-Soviet republic.