![Kyrgyz President Sooronbay Jeenbekov welcomes Tajik President Emomali Rahmon prior a Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) conference in Bishkek on June 14. The two presidents are planning to discuss border issues during a meeting in Isfara scheduled for July 26. [Vyacheslav Oseledko/AFP]](/cnmi_ca/images/2019/07/23/19130-000_1hi0xv-739_416.webp)
DUSHANBE -- Tajikistan is continuing to prepare for a meeting between Tajik President Emomali Rahmon and his Kyrgyz counterpart, Sooronbay Jeenbekov, despite border tensions on Monday (July 22), Asia-Plus reported.
Rahmon and Jeenbekov are scheduled to confer in Isfara, Tajikistan, Friday (July 26).
Issues related to delimitation and demarcation of the disputed stretches of their shared border will be the main subject of the presidents' discussion, said a Tajik government source.
Border disputes still flare up in Central Asia, a legacy of "divide and conquer" frontiers imposed by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
Clash in Vorukh
The meeting is set to take place after Tajik border officials said a man was fatally shot in violence along the contested border with Kyrgyzstan, AFP reported Tuesday (July 23).
A dispute broke out after Tajik citizens raised a flag in the Tajik-controlled exclave of Vorukh, the country's border agency said Monday.
Kyrgyz residents responded by planting their own country's flag, said the Tajik agency.
A 52-year-old Tajik man was fatally shot and 10 other Tajiks injured.
Kyrgyzstan's border service did not mention the death but noted five injuries and the closure of a key road in the region after a "verbal disagreement" over the flag-raising.
