DUSHANBE — Tajikistan's Foreign Affairs Ministry on October 30, 2022, issued a statement that did not confirm or deny the existence of an Iranian drone factory that Iran claimed to have opened near Dushanbe in May 2022. The ministry said that Tajikistan does not export military equipment to third countries.

On May 17, 2022, Major General Mohammad Baqeri and Sherali Mirzo attended the opening ceremony of an alleged Iranian drone factory near Dushanbe in Tajikistan. The facility was described as Iran's first drone production facility abroad and was intended to produce Ababil 2 tactical reconnaissance drones with a reported range of around 200 kilometers.

Iranian media reported the facility was located on the outskirts of Dushanbe in Tajikistan. On May 18, 2022, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon met with Mohammad Baqeri and officially welcomed defensive and military cooperation between Tajikistan and Iran.

A diplomat questioned the existence of the facility, saying, "Creating a drone production facility is not like producing Pepsi-Cola. I am 1,000 percent sure that such a factory does not exist in Tajikistan." The diplomat added, "If it existed, they would definitely have asked about it and verified it."

Igor Semyvolos, director of the Center for Middle East Studies in Kyiv, said that top-secret drone production could not be kept absolutely secret given current open-source intelligence capabilities. Semyvolos said that because Ababil 2 drones have not appeared anywhere, the factory project can reasonably be interpreted as a simulation.

Eric Lob, associate professor of politics and international relations at Florida International University, said the meetings had symbolic significance. "The pomp and circumstance of these meetings is a way for them to symbolically push back against international isolation, to send signals that Iran is not as isolated [as it seems]," Lob said.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. By the summer of 2022, Iran began supplying Russia with Shahed drones for use in the conflict in Ukraine.