The Tajik Foreign Ministry has sent a communique to the Uzbek government demanding the release of railroad freight cars detained on Uzbek territory, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.
Davlat Nazriyev said Uzbekistan had been holding up some 1,000 freight cars carrying goods crucial to Tajikistan and Afghanistan's economic development.
"The cars have cargoes bound for Afghanistan, aluminum oxide required by a Tajik aluminum company, as well as equipment and bulldozers for building the Rogun Hydroelectric Power Plant [in southern Tajikistan], plus fuel and lubricants," Nazriyev said.
Uzbekistan said it was forced to delay the cars due to a backlog of heavy cargo traffic through the border.
Last year, Tajikistan clenched a transit deal with the United States, allowing NATO non-military supplies for Afghanistan though its territory.
DYSHANBE, March 24 (RIA Novosti)
