Taliban sign deal with Russia to buy oil, gas and wheat at ‘special discount’ | World News - Hindustan Times
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Taliban sign deal with Russia to buy oil, gas and wheat at ‘special discount’

Bloomberg |
Sep 28, 2022 04:36 PM IST

Afghanistan-Russia Deal: Items like gasoline, diesel, gas and wheat will be purchased in Russian rubles and at a “special discount,” said Abdul Salam Jawad Akhundzada, a spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban have signed an agreement with Russia to import fuel and wheat at a discount as the country struggles to feed its population and seeks to boost regional trade a year after regaining power.

Afghanistan-Russia Deal: The Russian flag is seen.(Reuters)
Afghanistan-Russia Deal: The Russian flag is seen.(Reuters)

Items like gasoline, diesel, gas and wheat will be purchased in Russian rubles and at a “special discount,” said Abdul Salam Jawad Akhundzada, a spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, by phone from Kabul on Wednesday. Preparations are underway to start importing the products “within days or weeks,” he said.

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The deal, the largest such agreement the Taliban has signed since they returned to power, includes one million tons each of petrol and diesel, half a million tons of liquefied petroleum gas, and two million tons of wheat to be supplied annually until an unspecified date, Akhundzada said. More longer-term deals with Moscow are expected in the future, he added.

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The agreement follows a visit to Russia last month by Afghanistan’s Minister of Commerce and Industry Nooruddin Azizi. In June, the Taliban struck a deal with Iran to purchase 350,000 tons of petroleum products to ease fuel prices.

No country has formally recognized the Taliban government however, Russia is one of a few to have kept its embassy in Kabul open. Moscow has also approached several Asian countries to discuss possible long-term oil contracts at steep discounts as US officials continue to try and push a plan that would cap the price of the country’s oil, a Western official told Bloomberg last month.

Afghanistan consumes 1.3 million tons of fuel annually, imported mostly from Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Iran, according to the ministry.

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