The Landlocked Mystery: Unveiling Afghanistan's Neighboring Nations

Afghanistan is a landlocked country in Southern Central Asia. It borders six countries: Pakistan to the east and south, Iran to the west, Turkmenistan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, Tajikistan to the northeast, and China to the northeast and east. Afghanistan also has a small border section with India in the northeast, although this is disputed as it is in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Afghanistan-China border

Afghanistan shares a 92-kilometre-long (57-mile-long) border with China in the far northeast of the country. This border is located at the tip of the Wakhan Corridor, a narrow strip of land that extends from Afghanistan towards China, separating Tajikistan and Pakistan. The Wakhan Corridor is part of the Badakhshan province of Afghanistan and is home to around 12,000 people.

The Afghanistan-China border is marked by the Mustagh Range, which includes several mountain passes connecting the two countries, such as the Wakhjir Pass and the Tegermansu Pass. The border's northern terminus is found at the Afghanistan-China-Tajikistan tripoint on Povalo-Shveikovskogo Peak.

The border area was once a thoroughfare on the Silk Road, and it is believed that the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang travelled through the Wakhjir Pass on his return trip to China in 649 AD. Today, the border remains closed to visitors, except for local residents and herders.

The Afghanistan-China border was established in an agreement between the British and the Russians in 1895 as part of the Great Game. However, China and Afghanistan did not agree on the exact border until 1963, when the two countries signed a treaty demarcating their shared border.

In recent years, Afghanistan has asked China to open the Wakhan Corridor for economic reasons and as an alternative supply route to fight the Taliban insurgency. However, China has resisted due to concerns over unrest in its Xinjiang province, which borders the corridor.

Afghanistan-Iran border

The Afghanistan-Iran border is 921km (572mi) long and runs from the tripoint with Turkmenistan in the north to the tripoint with Pakistan in the south. The border traverses an arid, inhospitable region with few inhabitants, except in the Zabol-Zaranj area where the main border crossing is located.

The border begins at the tripoint with Turkmenistan in the Harirud River before proceeding overland just to the east of the Iranian town of Taybad. The border then follows a series of short straight lines, passing through the Daryache-ye Namakzar and the Daqq-e Patergan salt lakes. Two 'beaks' of Iranian territory protrude into Afghanistan along this section. The middle 'Turkish section' consists of a series of straight lines through a plain, with some mountains to the south, ending at Kuh Siah mountain, where the border veers sharply to the east. It cuts through Hamun Lake before turning south, where it follows the Juy-e Siksar River down to the confluence with the Helmand River. The border is then formed of a long straight line segment going southwest to the tripoint with Pakistan at the Kuh-i-Malik Salih mountain.

The border between Persia and Afghanistan was formalised in the period 1872–1935 by a series of third-party arbitrations, stemming from the Treaty of Paris (1857) in which Persia and Afghanistan agreed to refer any dispute between them to Britain for arbitration. A rough delimitation was proposed in 1872 by a committee headed by Sir Frederic John Goldsmid following a line from Banda to Kuh-i-Malik Siah (a hill at the modern Afghanistan-Iran-Pakistan tripoint) via the Helmand River. Both parties eventually accepted this proposal, however, it was not implemented further at that time.

The Goldsmid boundary proved to be inadequate, especially given the shifting of the course of the Helmand, and thus a more precise boundary was drawn up in three sections over the following decades: the northern section by General C.S. MacLean, British consul general for Khorasan and Sīstān, in 1888–91; the southern section by Colonel Sir Henry McMahon in 1903–05; and finally, the middle section by Turkey’s General Fahrettin Altay in 1934–35. After each demarcation, boundary pillars were erected, leading to a total of 172 pillars being erected in the non-riverine sections of the border.

The boundary itself was not disputed after 1935, however, disputes over the allocation of water resources in the region rumbled on for many years and were not finally resolved until 1973.

In recent years, the Afghanistan-Iran border has been the site of clashes and rising political tensions between the two countries over the flow of water from the Helmand River in Afghanistan into eastern Iran. The Helmand River is the longest river in Afghanistan and is a critical source of drinking water, as well as agriculture and fishing, in southern Afghanistan and southeastern Iran.

Afghanistan-Pakistan border

The Durand Line is the 1,600-mile-long border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. It was established in 1893 as the border between British India and the Emirate of Afghanistan, marking their respective spheres of influence. The Durand Line was established by Sir Mortimer Durand, a British diplomat of the Indian Civil Service, and Abdur Rahman Khan, the Emir of Afghanistan. The Durand Line Agreement was only a page long, and the Durand Line itself was defined by a joint Afghan-British survey between 1894 and 1896. The Durand Line cuts through to demarcate Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan of northern and western Pakistan from the northeastern and southern provinces of Afghanistan.

The Durand Line has been a source of tension between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Afghanistan refused to accept the Durand Line, declaring the border and the agreements defining it as void because they had been imposed on them by the British. The Durand Line cuts through the traditional homeland of the Pashtuns, the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan. The Durand Line also gave Balochistan to British India and defined the Wakhan Corridor, a thin strip of land running to the Chinese border, as a buffer zone between the Russian and British empires.

The Durand Line is often recognised as one of the most dangerous borders in the world. The border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan has long been one of the most dangerous places in the world, due largely to very little government control. It is common and legal in the region to carry guns, and assault rifles and explosives are commonplace. Many forms of illegal activities take place, such as the smuggling of weapons, narcotics, lumber, copper, gemstones, marble, vehicles, and electronic products, as well as ordinary consumer goods. Kidnappings and murders are frequent. Militants frequently cross the border from both sides to conduct attacks.

In recent years, Pakistan has been constructing a border barrier to prevent terrorism, drug trafficking, refugees, illegal immigration, smuggling and infiltration across the Durand Line. As of January 2019, 900km of the border barrier has been completed. The Durand Line is marked by 235 crossing points, many of which had been susceptible to illegal immigration. The project is predicted to cost at least $532 million.

Afghanistan-Turkmenistan border

The Afghanistan-Turkmenistan border is 804km (500 miles) long and runs from the tripoint with Iran to the tripoint with Uzbekistan. The border traverses a thinly populated area consisting mostly of desert and some hills, except for the easternmost section where the Amu Darya is paralleled by a road and railway on the Turkmen side. The border was inherited from the old Soviet Union-Afghan border, which largely took its current shape during the 19th-century Anglo-Russian rivalry in Central Asia known as the Great Game.

The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan border sits in a plain that extends from northern Afghanistan into the Karakum Desert of Turkmenistan. The border starts at the tripoint with Iran on the Tedzhen River and proceeds eastwards in a series of mostly straight lines for about 90km (56 miles) until reaching the Kushk River near the Afghan town of Torghundi, which it follows southwards for a short 15km (9.3 miles) section. It then proceeds across land for 150km (93 miles) in a northwestwards direction until reaching the Murghab River, which it follows northwards for 35km (22 miles). It then continues across land northwestwards for 370km (230 miles) until reaching the Amu Darya river just to the north of the Afghan town of Khamyab. The border then follows the thalweg of this river up to the tripoint with Uzbekistan.

The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan border is the main border between the two countries and is on the road to Herat. It is also the site of a major railway link that was opened in 2016 to facilitate fuel exports. Afghanistan depends on Turkmenistan for meeting a large part of the country's electricity needs, importing more than 320 million kilowatt-hours of electricity from Turkmenistan every year.

Turkmenistan has de facto diplomatic relations with the Taliban government and has facilitated the Taliban's appointment of diplomats to the Afghan Embassy in Ashgabat. However, like the rest of the world, Turkmenistan has not officially recognised the Taliban government as legitimate.

Afghanistan-Uzbekistan border

The Afghanistan-Uzbekistan border is 144 km (89 mi) long and runs from the tripoint with Turkmenistan to the tripoint with Tajikistan along the Amu River. The border is the shortest of Uzbekistan's external borders. The city of Termez in Uzbekistan and the town of Hairatan in Afghanistan are the closest major populated centres to the border.

The entire border follows the thalweg of the Amu River, from the Turkmen tripoint in the west to the Tajik tripoint in the east. The border is paralleled on the Uzbek side by a road and railway line, and there is a major crossing point, known as the Friendship Bridge, between Termez in Uzbekistan and Hairatan in Afghanistan. The Friendship Bridge officially opened in 1982, however, it was a target of the Mujahideen insurgency due to its strategic importance.

The border crossing process has been described as time-consuming and arduous, with Uzbek officials conducting extensive checks on those coming in from Afghanistan. However, since the liberalisation of Uzbekistan in 2018, no tourist has reported negative feedback about crossing the border. In recent years, the border crossing process into Afghanistan has been described as pretty smooth and painless, taking about 28 minutes to an hour to cross at midday.

Large volumes of trade between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan pass through the border daily. Citizens of Afghanistan can stay for up to 10 days in Termez without a travel visa. Cross-border traffic has fallen since the Taliban takeover in 2021, but dozens of Afghans still enter Uzbekistan daily, and cargo movement at the border crossing remains dynamic.

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