The role of border delegates in focus of workshop at the OSCE Office in Tajikistan

OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier addresses border officials from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan participating in a course at the OSCE Office in Tajikistan’s Border Management Staff College. Dushanbe, 1 April 2016. (OSCE/Ilona Kazaryan)

DUSHANBE, 1 April 2016 – Twenty-five officials from border security and management agencies of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan today completed a week-long workshop at the OSCE Office in Tajikistan on the role of effective border delegates.

The course organized by the Border Management Staff College and the Political-Military Department of the OSCE Office in Tajikistan highlighted that border delegates of national agencies are officials who are assigned according to international agreements for maintaining effective border management, cross border co-operation and resolving border-related incidents.

“The best border delegate practices of Belarus, Latvia, and the Russian Federation were demonstrated at the workshop which I believe will help further develop the mechanisms for border-related cooperation with the aim of jointly addressing transnational threats in the region,” said Markus Muller, Head of the OSCE Office in Tajikistan.

During the course, participants focused on analysing the existing types of delegated authority and international border delegate co-operation models, ways to identify problem-solving approaches, effective methods for the unilateral and bilateral investigations of incidents, organizing and conducting border representation meetings, as well as border representative apparatus along with its structure and responsibilities.

On the last day of the workshop OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier also addressed participants as part of his official tour of the region.