KABUL (TCA) — Tajikistan’s Minister of Transport Khudoyorzoda Khudoyor on May 26 signed trade and economic agreements with Afghanistan during his two-day visit to the country, Afghanistan’s TOLOnews agency reported.
Khudoyor visited Afghanistan last week for an Economic and Trade Cooperation meeting in Kabul.
The Tajik minister said that in the past three months Afghanistan and Tajikistan’s trade and transit relations had increased substantially, resulting in Afghanistan becoming one of Tajikistan’s key trade partners.
Khudoyor was optimistic about a further increase in trade between the two countries.
He said that in the first quarter of the current year Tajikistan exported $74 million USD in goods to Afghanistan, including cement worth $11 million.
After recent closures of the Afghanistan crossing with Pakistan, Afghan traders started looking for alternative trade partners, and have since increased trade with Turkey, Iran and India. Central Asian countries are also looking to increase their exports to Afghanistan.
The Afghan Minister of Economy Abdul Sattar Murad said that the expansion of economic cooperation and trade between Afghanistan and Tajikistan is to the benefit of both countries.
Murad said that at their Economic and Trade Cooperation meeting, Afghanistan and Tajikistan agreed on expanding cooperation in the transport infrastructure sector and increase exports.
The Tajik minister said that his country is committed to providing better opportunities and improving transit of Afghan goods through his country to Europe and China.
The Tajik minister also said that today, Afghanistan provides good opportunities for transit of Tajikistan goods to India, Iran and Turkey.
