The agreement has been recently signed in Islamabad, Pakistan, following trilateral talks between the Acting Ministerof Industry and Commerce of Afghanistan, Pakistan’s Minister of Commerce, and the Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan
With the Islamic Emirate (IEA) takeover in mid-August 2021, efforts have been started towards expansion of trade and transit between Afghanistan and regional countries. In the past two years, trade has increased between Afghanistan and most countries in the region. Afghanistan usually trades with its neighbors, most countries in the region are now its major trade partners. Afghanistan has now trades with Pakistan, Iran, China, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Russia and Turkey as well as Kazakhstan and some other countries in the world. Afghanistan has now bilateral trade and transit agreements with most neighboring countries. Its objective is to promote its trade with neighboring countries as it is a land locked country, so much dependent on them. The country is now also focusing to move from bilateral to regional because Afghanistan can link with many countries and can act as a ‘ land bridging link’ between these countries. As Afghanistan is located in the heart of Eurasia, and since time immemorial, has been at the crossroad of cultures, between the China and the Middle East, and between South Asia and Europe, the Islamic Emirate is working to make Afghanistan as trade, transit and communication hub. In the meantime, Afghanistan plays a key role of land link within the region, as such it can help overcome bilateral problems including border trade. In most recent move, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Pakistan have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on transit and trade cooperation. The agreement has been recently signed in Islamabad, Pakistan, following trilateral talks between the Acting Minister of Industry and Commerce of Afghanistan, Pakistan’s Minister of Commerce, and the Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan. The MoU emphasizes strengthening trilateral economic relations, regional connectivity through trade development, facilitating increased transit, boosting joint investments, reducing transit costs, improving transportation facilities, electrifying customs systems, enhancing and expanding the banking system, ensuring food security, visa issuance, resolving transit issues, and strengthening trilateral transit. Afghanistan delegation, led by Nooruddin Azizi, the Acting Minister of Industry and Commerce of the Islamic Emirate, traveled to Islamabad last week to participate in the trilateral meeting among Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan. They have also discussed banking and banking transactions with officials of Pakistan and Uzbekistan. In his most recent remarks in connection with his visit to Islamabad, Azizi has said that officials from Pakistan and Afghanistan’s commerce ministries had agreed to work on draft proposals within a month on how they could reinstate banking transactions for traders. He hoped that Pakistani banks that already have branches in Afghanistan could re-start transactions between the two countries, adding that he would prefer Afghan banks use its previous banking channels like SWIFT. This comes after an Afghan delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister on Economic Affairs Mullah Abdul Ghani Beradar visited Iran’s Chabahar port for increasing trade between Afghanistan and Iran and other countries in the region. Chabahar port is considered as an alternative to Pakistani ports. It will provide an alternative and reduce Afghanistan’s dependence on Karachi port. Mashal Noor
