KABUL, Afghanistan — Private sector representatives from Afghanistan and Kazakhstan signed 20 memorandums of understanding worth a combined $140 million during a bilateral business forum in Kabul, Taliban-run commerce ministry said Tuesday, as part of a broader effort to expand regional trade ties.
According to Nooruddin Azizi, the Taliban’s acting minister of industry and commerce, the agreements include 17 commercial deals alongside three cooperation memorandums. The accords were reached during the Afghanistan-Kazakhstan Business Forum, which followed the visit of a high-level Kazakh delegation to Afghanistan.
The Taliban’s Ministry of Industry and Commerce reported a 32 percent increase in trade volume between the two countries compared with previous years, though it did not provide detailed figures.
More than two dozen Kazakh firms participated in the forum, displaying products and exploring new trade partnerships with Afghan companies. Taliban used the event to call on Kazakh authorities to ease restrictions on Afghanistan’s exports, citing long-standing logistical and regulatory hurdles that have limited the country’s access to regional markets.
Roza Otunbayeva, head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), also attended the event but the Taliban-run state media, RTA, did not air the speeches of UNAMA chief and the deputy prime minister of Kazakhstan.
While the memorandums are agreements between private sector entities rather than formal treaties between governments, Taliban officials have presented such deals as evidence of Afghanistan’s re-engagement with regional economies and efforts to stabilize commerce amid international isolation.
