Taliban and Kazakh officials opened a trade and economic forum in Kabul on Saturday, highlighting growing commercial ties between the two sides as Afghanistan seeks deeper economic links with Central Asia amid disruptions to traditional trade routes.
The three-day event brought together Nooruddin Azizi, the Taliban’s minister of industry and commerce, and Serik Zhumangarin, Kazakhstan’s deputy prime minister and minister of national economy, along with business leaders, officials and representatives of economic institutions from both countries.
The forum includes an exhibition featuring products and industrial goods from Afghanistan and Kazakhstan, with organizers saying more than 50 exhibitors are participating.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Azizi said trade between Afghanistan and Kazakhstan had nearly doubled between 2022 and 2025 and had risen by about 41 percent over the past year.
He pointed to a previously signed roadmap under which the two sides have set a target of increasing annual trade to $3 billion, a goal he described as achievable if both countries expand banking cooperation, improve transportation and transit links and encourage greater investment.
Azizi also promoted investment opportunities in Afghanistan’s agriculture, mining, energy, logistics and manufacturing sectors, calling on foreign businesses to increase their presence in the country.
“Today’s exhibition and business meetings provide a valuable opportunity to establish new partnerships, introduce products, exchange experiences and expand economic cooperation,” he said.
Zhumangarin said stability in Afghanistan was important for the wider region and described the forum as a platform for strengthening economic relations.
“Afghanistan has sufficient potential to expand regional ties and become a hub connecting Asian countries,” he said, adding that Kazakhstan is interested in investing in various sectors of the Afghan economy.
Analysts say the forum reflects Kazakhstan’s broader effort to expand economic engagement with Afghanistan despite the Taliban’s lack of international recognition.
In recent years, Kazakhstan has emerged as one of the Taliban’s most important economic partners in Central Asia. The two sides have increased high-level contacts, signed trade agreements and explored cooperation in areas including transport, agriculture, mining, logistics and food processing.
On Friday, a high-level Kazakh delegation led by Zhumangarin arrived in Kabul for talks on trade, investment and regional connectivity. The visit followed Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s approval of an agreement establishing a United Nations regional center for sustainable development in Central Asia and Afghanistan, Kazakh officials said.
The forum also comes at a time when Afghan businesses are facing growing difficulties accessing traditional maritime trade routes.
The Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Investment recently told Amu TV that Afghanistan has effectively lost access to its principal sea-based transit corridors through Karachi, Jebel Ali and Bandar Abbas, forcing traders to rely increasingly on overland routes through Central Asia.
Business leaders say those alternatives are slower and more expensive, but they have also increased the strategic importance of countries such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan as gateways for Afghan imports and regional trade.
Kazakhstan has become one of Afghanistan’s largest suppliers of wheat and flour and has sought to position itself as a key economic partner in the region. Officials from both sides have repeatedly emphasized the potential for Afghanistan to serve as a transit corridor linking Central and South Asia.
