Uzbekistan's Foreign Ministry said on Monday that the border with Afghanistan was closed and there was no traffic through the checkpoint Termez at the moment, APA reports citing TASS.
"For security reasons, the Uzbek-Afghan border is now totally closed. There is no traffic through the Termez checkpoint and there are no plans for reopening it," the Foreign Ministry said.
It warned that any attempts at crossing the border regardless of reason would be stopped in accordance with Uzbekistan's legislation.
The Foreign Ministry recalled that over the past twelve days Uzbekistan had assisted a number of countries in their humanitarian operations to evacuate their citizens from Afghanistan, who were arriving and leaving Uzbekistan exclusively by air.
"The Foreign Ministry says once again that the Republic of Uzbekistan will not accommodate Afghan refugees. It provides transit assistance, which envisages strict deadlines for their presence in the country. We stress once again that the Uzbek side is firmly committed to maintaining traditionally friendly and neighborly relations with Afghanistan and the principles of non-intervention in the internal affairs of a neighboring country," the statement runs.
The situation in Afghanistan aggravated after US President Joe Biden in April declared his decision to curtail the operation in the country. The Taliban movement (outlawed in Russia) promptly launched a large-scale offensive operation to enter Kabul on August 15 without encountering any resistance and had the city under control within a matter of hours. Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani left the country. Many countries have evacuated their citizens and embassy staffers. The Taliban established control of the country's territory and ordered all foreign forces to leave by August 31. Otherwise, their further presence will be considered as further occupation, it warned.
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