Kabul (Kubha News) – Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan have recently reached an agreement on a transit contract that will enable millions of tons of Russian oil to be exported through Afghanistan to South Asia.
Homayoon Azizi, acting Minister of Commerce of the Taliban government, told Reuters that this agreement has been under work in recent months and was improve during a visit last week by the Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister and the Turkmenistan Transport Ministry delegation.
According to Azizi, this trilateral agreement will be signed between the three countries within two months, and based on it, a Regional Energy Trade Hub will be established in Herat province.
Initially, one million tons of Russian oil will be transported through Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to Herat and then exported to Pakistan: “We have been working on a trilateral agreement for six months and recently held a trilateral conference among Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan. Overall, all efforts have progressed sincerely. The main goal of these agreements is to export Russian petroleum products, and Kazakhstan also wants to deliver some of its export items via Turghundi and Spin Boldak to South Asian markets.”
While the groundwork for Russian oil exports via Afghanistan to South Asia is being laid by the Taliban government, Kazakhstan has faced pressures from the United States for several years due to facilitating Russian exports.
Washington has warned Kazakh companies that they will face sanctions if they continue this practice.
Currently, India is the largest importer of Russian oil in South Asia, having imported 4.86 million barrels in just April 2024.
It is not yet clear in the new agreement between Kabul, Ashgabat, and Almaty, whether India will also utilize the transit hub in Herat for importing Russian oil or not.
Although the Taliban government has only mentioned Russian oil exports through two Afghan commercial ports, Kazakhstan’s government has also expressed China’s interest in utilizing Afghanistan’s transit route.
According to an announcement from the Prime Minister’s Office of Kazakhstan, China, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan are striving to use Afghanistan’s transit route for their exports via road and railway.
The announcement stated, “The parties to this agreement will establish appropriate tariffs to facilitate the rapid transportation of commercial containers via land transit and railway from Urumqi, China, through Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to Afghanistan. Based on initial calculations, the transportation of Chinese trade goods through Afghanistan to West Asia (the Middle East) will be 10 to 12 days shorter compared to other routes.”
The Taliban’s acting Minister of Commerce told Reuters that their effort is to activate the Wakhan Corridor for trade and transit with China as soon as possible.
However, it seems that China is not very interested in the Wakhan Corridor. Earlier, Chinese media had reported Beijing’s concerns about security threats along this corridor.