On April 10th-12th, Bishkek hosted an EU expert team, who aimed to assess the strategic development of Integrated Border Management (IBM) in the Kyrgyz Republic. N. Garbars, Chief of Latvian State Border Guard and Coordinator of BOMCA 9, together with Ingrida Gulbe Otanke, Chief of Latvian Customs Service, discussed border management strategies and the development thereof in Kyrgyzstan.
On March 28th-30th in Bishkek and April 2nd-4th in Astana, experts met with main border management actors and facilitated the development of a country risk analysis report, where the main risks for border security are stated and measures for their prevention and elimination are listed. This activity built upon the guidelines on interagency cooperation, which were developed in both countries previously.
On February 28-30 in Dushanbe, March 03-05 in Tashkent and March 28-30 in Ashgabat workshops on contingency planning were held, gathering representatives of state agencies involved in border control.
On March 13 -15 March, 2018 Bishkek hosted multilateral workshop for dog handling specialists. Managers of K-9 departments of respective border, customs and counter-narcotics agencies from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan gathered together in order to exchange experience and discuss perspectives of development and modernization of K-9 functioning in their countries.
On February 27- March 01 a Regional Training of Trainers on profiling at border checkpoints was held in Almaty in cooperation with the OSCE Programme Office and the INL Bureau (US Embassy). The event gathered lecturers of training institutions from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
On 21-23 February, in Ashgabat, and 26-28 February, in Tashkent, two workshops on the identification and profiling of foreign terrorist fighters (FTF) were conducted, building upon results of activities conducted in 2016, where border guards and law enforcement officers were trained on basic profiling and identification techniques. The workshops gathered European experts and professionals from the border and law enforcement agencies of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in order to improve and enhance existing mechanisms and strengthen the cooperation and interaction of the concerned agencies.
On February 13-15 2018, a group of Kazakh Border Guard Academy trainers visited Bishkek with the aim of exchanging knowledge and teaching experiences with their Kyrgyz colleagues – trainers from the Border Service Training Center and Armed Forces Military Institute of the Kyrgyz Republic.
A three-day national training course for canine officers from the Border and Customs agencies of Uzbekistan was held in Tashkent on 6-8 February 2018. Dog handlers from the State Border Guard Committee of the National Security Service and the Customs Committee of Uzbekistan examined international K-9 practices and shared lessons learned from their own professional experience.
