JOIN USThe Tajik parliament this week approved a border demarcation agreement that will see Tajikistan cede 1,122 square kilometres (433 square miles) of uninhabited mountainous land to China.
The land in the Pamir Mountains represents 0.78 per cent of Tajikistan's total area of 143,000 square kilometres (55,212 square miles).
Tajik Foreign Minister Khamrokhon Zarifi hailed the deal as a "success for Tajik diplomacy", saying China had previously been seeking 28,000 square kilometres of Tajik territory.
Meanwhile Sukhrob Sharipov, head of the the Centre for Strategic Investigation think tank which is attached to the presidential administration, said Tajikistan had solved a major long-term problem.
"If we had not taken the decision to hand over the land to China then we would not have been able to withstand Chinese pressure, given the seriousness of the issue," he told AFP. "Tajikistan minimised its losses in the dispute."
He said that if China had ever shown signs of using military intervention to resolve the issue, then no-one would have come to Dushanbe's aid.But members of the Islamic and Communist opposition to President Emomali Rakhmon scoffed at the idea of a Tajik diplomatic victory.