Afghanistan–Turkmenistan border

Panjdeh

An 1873 Anglo-Russian agreement made the Amu Darya Afghanistan’s northern boundary but left the land west of it to a later commission. Nothing happened until 1885: the Afghans claimed the Panjdeh oasis on the Morghab River, but in the spring Russian forces occupied it. In September 1885 Britain and Russia signed a protocol in London defining the line west of the Amu Darya, and a joint commission set up 79 boundary posts over the next three years. Russia accepted Kham Ab as the point where the line leaves the Amu Darya in exchange for concessions in the Kushka salient.^[1]

From the Harirud the line runs east across hills, dips south in a 15 km salient near the Soviet railhead of Kushka, follows the Morghab for 35 km and then crosses 370 km of uplands to Kham Ab. Turkmen inhabit the western border area, and in Soviet times the Turkmen republic held the line from Iran to a point on the Amu Darya 80 km above Kham Ab.^[1]

“Although the Afghans put forth historical claims to the Pandjeh Oasis on the Morghab River, the Russians in spring 1885 sent military forces to the area and occupied it.”^[1]

Water and gas

A 1946 Soviet–Afghan agreement gave Afghanistan water rights on the Kushka River and the Soviet Union the right to dam the stretch of the Morghab that forms the border; the western sector was redemarcated in 1947–48.^[1]

The TAPI pipeline is planned to carry Turkmen gas 1,814 km through Afghanistan and Pakistan to India, 774 km of it in Afghanistan. In September 2024 Turkmenistan’s leaders and the Taliban’s acting prime minister marked the start of work on the 150 km section from Serhetabat on the border to Herat; by early 2025 the Taliban reported 2.9 km built.^[2]