Central Asian States Push Trade Links With Taliban-Ruled Afghanistan Despite Western Sanctions and EU Opposition
Regional leaders meeting in Tashkent on June 4 agreed Afghanistan is key to trade connectivity. Uzbekistan has signed roughly $5 billion in deals with Afghan entities since late 2025.
oneindia.comTop level officials from Central and South Asia convened in Tashkent on June 4 under the Termez Dialogue format to discuss regional trade and connectivity. Participants were unanimous in seeing a strategic need to weave Afghanistan into regional trade networks, though discussion on specific tactics did not feature prominently at the gathering.
For Central Asian states, the shortest route to a seaport runs through Afghanistan.
Bakhromjon Aloev, Uzbekistan’s first deputy foreign minister, stated that an Afghanistan that is trading vigorously and growing more prosperous can potentially break the country’s nearly half-century-long cycle of violence and contribute to regional stability.
Uzbek and Afghan entities have agreed on deals worth roughly $5 billion since the fall of 2025. Uzbek and other Central Asian states are building trade ties with Afghanistan to the fullest extent possible, even as the general lack of international recognition of the Taliban government and ongoing international sanctions hinder expansion of road and rail routes.
Nooruddin Azizi, Afghanistan’s Minister of Industry and Commerce, reiterated Kabul’s desire to build up trade volume with neighboring states and develop the country’s logistics capacity. Other Afghan officials in Tashkent quietly lobbied Central and South Asian leaders to advocate for an easing of international sanctions.
Syed Karim Hashemy, chairman of Afghanistan’s Chamber of Commerce and Investment, urged a rethinking of sanctions policy against Afghanistan, arguing that private-sector traders who are non-political are unfairly impacted by the sanctions imposed because of repressive government policies.
Hashemy said that private-sector entrepreneurs are responsible for generating about 70 percent of Afghanistan’s economic activity. “The private sector has never left the country,” Hashemy said, calling for banking restrictions to be altered to enable private-sector, trade-related wire transfers.
Eduards Stirpais, the European Union’s special representative to Central Asia, signaled that Brussels has little appetite to support a regime that is not supporting European values.
That position suggests EU financing for large-scale infrastructure projects such as a trans-Afghan railroad is unlikely. One conference participant noted that in the eyes of many Central Asian officials, the Taliban government is a more reliable negotiating partner than was the US-backed government that the Islamic militant movement drove from power in 2021.
“The Talibs are very tough negotiators, but once they agree on something, they can be counted upon,” the participant said.
The Termez Dialogue is a platform forged by a 2022 United Nations Resolution titled Strengthening connectivity between Central and South Asia. The resolution urges the creation of accessible and sustainable transport networks with a view to achieving transport connectivity across Central and South Asia that is economically, socially and environmentally viable and financially sustainable.
