If a conflict were to break out at the Tajik-Afghan border, military forces of the Commonwealth of Independent States (Tajikistan, Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan) could be deployed in less than 36 hours.
This is according to Nikolai Bordyuzha, the secretary general of the Commonwealth of Independent States’ Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO). He made the statement during a press conference in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, on March 13.
Bordyuzha, a Russian general, was also quoted by local media as saying that Russia does not want a "second front in Tajikistan, but [Russia] would never permit the security of a CSTO member to be in doubt".
In December, Russian President Vladimir Putin had told a CSTO summit that Islamic State militias threatened to "include some provinces of Afghanistan in the so-called Islamic caliphate" under their control. He warned unspecified "terrorist groups" were trying to reach Central Asia.