Page 10 - FSUOGM Week 39 2022

FSUOGM POLICY FSUOGM

Taliban sign deal to buy Russian

oil, gas and wheat

RUSSIA RUSSIA has signed off on a preliminary deal steep discounts on key commodities to new
to provide the Taliban with oil, gas and wheat, partners.
Russia is developing Afghanistan’s Acting Commerce and Industry The Taliban is widely seen as a terrorist organ-
ties with other pariah Minister Haji Nooruddin Azizi told Reuters on isation by the international community and no
countries. September 27. country has formally recognised its leadership
The agreement marks the first international since Taliban forces swept into Kabul to re-es-
economic deal that the Taliban administration tablish the control the fundamentalists had two
has signed since coming to power. It is seen as the decades ago prior to 9/11 and the subsequent
first attempt by the regime to open the country arrival of US forces.
up and improve trade ties with its Central Asian However, many countries in the region are
neighbours. eyeing improved relations with Afghanistan.
Azizi said Russia would supply 1mn tonnes of It is home to an estimated $1 trillion in natural
gasoline, 1mn tonnes of diesel, 500,000 tonnes of resource deposits and, it is often forgotten, occu-
liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and 2mn tonnes pies the key strategic location linking Central
of wheat per year. No details of pricing were Asia to South Asia. Afghanistan’s lithium depos-
released, but Azizi confirmed that the Taliban its are thought to be especially large.
would buy the commodities at a discount to Other Central Asian states, led by Uzbek
global prices. President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, remain keen to
The Taliban have faced a severe economic improve relations with Afghanistan and stabi-
crisis since taking control of Afghanistan in lise the country. An exception here is probably
August 2021, following the hasty withdrawal of Tajikistan, which views the Taliban with some
US occupying forces. Washington froze $7bn hostility.
of Afghan central bank reserves held in the Even before the Taliban took back control,
US following its departure. The Taliban took Mirziyoyev identified Afghanistan as the key
over an economy in tatters and increasingly security issue in Central Asia. He once used a
dislocated. speech at a UN General Assembly summit to
Moscow rapidly but tentatively moved to fill call for an international stabilisation effort to be
the void and, despite maintaining the designa- made for Afghanistan.
tion of the Taliban as a terrorist organisa- Azizi said the Russian commodities arrange-
tion—while at the same time in recent months ment with the Taliban would run for an unspec-
agreeing recognition for a Taliban delegation ified trial period, after which both sides were
in the Russian capital—has been actively work- expected to sign a longer-term deal if they were
ing to improve relations with Kabul as Russia is content with how things stood, Reuters reported.
interested in opening up a southern economic The deal was finalised after an Afghan tech-
and transit corridor via Central Asia to tap nical team spent several weeks in discussions in
extensive markets in South Asia. Moscow. It stayed on in the city after Azizi visited
Azizi said the Taliban was working to diver- last month.
sify its trading partners and that Russia had Washington has set up a Swiss trust fund for
offered the Taliban administration a discount to some of the Afghan central bank reserves it has
average global commodity prices. frozen. The Taliban have repeatedly demanded
Under Western sanctions, Moscow is keen to the release of the assets, which they state are
find new non-aligned markets that are not par- quite clearly the property of the Afghan central
ticipating in the sanctions regime. It is offering bank. ™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 39 30•September•2022