• Kabul wants to bolster trade with C. Asia states
• Afghan traders say Islamabad still shortest, cheapest route to seaports
• Uzbek president proposes new bloc
AFGHANISTAN is seeking to significantly bolster trade with the oil-rich countries of Central Asia as it attempts to end its economic dependence on Pakistan, which has historically been Kabul’s biggest trading partner.
However, experts warn that geography, high costs, and political constraints will hinder efforts by Afghanistan’s cash-strapped and unrecognised Taliban government to shift trade to Central Asia, according to a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty report.
Kabul’s attempts to find new trade partners come after the worst outbreak of hostilities with Islamabad in years. The neighbours exchanged military attacks last month, killing dozens of people and leading to Pakistan closing its border with Afghanistan.
The month-long border closure has inflicted some $200 million in losses for Afghan traders, who rely on Pakistani seaports to access international markets.
Similarly, Pakistan had been exporting fresh fruits, cement, medicines, surgical items, agricultural tools, fabrics, shoes, plastic pipes and sanitary items, cosmetics, and a variety of other locally manufactured products valued at around $100–200m per month to the neighbouring country.
‘Trade alternatives’
Senior Taliban officials have urged Afghan traders and investors to end their activities in Pakistan and find new business and trade opportunities in Central Asia. “We are actively working with our northern neighbors to find reliable trade alternatives,” Taliban Commerce Minister Nooruddin Azizi said last week.
Abdul Ghani Baradar, a Taliban deputy prime minister, accused Islamabad of using trade as a “tool of political pressure” and framed the ongoing border closure as evidence that Kabul must reduce its reliance on its neighbour.
Swiss-based Afghan expert Torek Farhadi said the Taliban’s new emphasis on trade with Central Asia is “largely political posturing”.
Central Asia is landlocked, and Afghanistan must rely on long-distance overland corridors to reach markets. The region’s tariff structures impose high costs on many Afghan exports, especially agricultural goods. The logistics of handling, storing, and transporting perishable goods such as fruits and vegetables remain underdeveloped.
“To make the northern route commercially viable, Afghanistan would need to remove tariffs and offer incentives to its Central Asian partners,” Mr Farhadi told RFE/RL.
“But for the government in Kabul, customs revenue is one of their primary income sources.”
Meanwhile, several railway projects, crucial for scaling cross-border trade, remain unfinished or lack financing.
The Taliban’s lack of international recognition also prevents it from accessing funds from global institutions like the World Bank and IMF, limiting investment in the infrastructure needed to support northbound trade, Farhadi said.
Those factors have ensured that Afghanistan’s trade with Central Asia, although growing, has remained modest.
Trade between Afghanistan and the five Central Asian states — Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan — has grown steadily, reaching nearly $1.7 billion, according to Afghan officials.
