Afghanistan–Uzbekistan border
A short border along the Amu Darya, the Oxus, with Uzbekistan’s Termez on the firm northern bank and low floodplain on the Afghan side. Its Friendship Bridge is where the last Soviet troops left Afghanistan in 1989, and where fleeing Afghan soldiers crowded when Mazar-i-Sharif fell to the Taliban in 2021.
Written from cited sourcesLast checked 29 September 2026Suggest a correction
See it on the globe:Afghanistan →Uzbekistan →
The Oxus
Below its junction with the Vakhsh, the Amu Darya meanders across a broad floodplain as the boundary, broken by many islands. The Afghan bank is low and floods; the northern bank is firmer, and the river towns such as Termez stand on it, with a railway following the river. Mazar-e Sharif lies at the foot of the mountains to the south.[1]
The Friendship Bridge
On 15 February 1989 General Boris Gromov led the last Soviet troops out of Afghanistan, walking across the Friendship Bridge to declare the nine-year war over, in a scene RFE/RL describes as carefully orchestrated to present a dignified exit. The war had killed 15,000 Soviet soldiers and an estimated one million Afghans.[2]
On 14 August 2021, when Mazar-i-Sharif, about 80 km away, fell to the Taliban, hundreds or even thousands of soldiers, militiamen and civilians fled toward Uzbekistan, and pick-up trucks crowded the bridge. Uzbekistan said 84 Afghan soldiers had crossed and been detained.[3]
Timeline
More borders
Sources
- [1]International Boundary Study No. 26 (Revised): Afghanistan – U.S.S.R. Boundary · US Department of State, Office of the Geographer
- [2]Soviet-Era Journalist, Face Of Afghan War, Looks Back On Pullout · RFE/RL · 14 February 2014
- [3]Uzbekistan: Afghan troubles keep border city on edge · Eurasianet · 18 August 2021
Map geometry from Natural Earth via world-atlas. See credits.