The “commerce minister” of the Taliban terrorist organization told Reuters on Thursday that the group is in the “advanced” stages of a deal to do business with Russia using local currency and is pitching China to adopt a similar policy.
The Taliban has been the uncontested ruling entity of Afghanistan since August 15, 2021, when former President Ashraf Ghani fled the country after the arrival of the Taliban to Kabul. The Taliban’s return to power after being deposed in 2001 was facilitated by former President Joe Biden extending the decades-long war by breaking an agreement between Washington and the terrorists that would have seen American troops leave the country in May 2021. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced this week that he would launch a “comprehensive review” of the Biden administration’s actions that resulted in the establishment of a violent jihadist regime taking control of Afghanistan.
While having no rivals to vie for control of Afghanistan for nearly four years, the Taliban is not recognized as the government of Afghanistan by any nation at press time. Some allied states, such as China and Iran, have accepted Taliban leaders as “interim” government representatives, while the United Nations engages the jihadists under the vague term of “relevant political actors and stakeholders.”
Russia designated the Taliban as a terrorist organization, preventing it from working with the Taliban in any official capacity, but revoked that designation in April. The delay stemmed largely from the fact that Russian law previously granted the government the power to designate groups as terrorist organizations, but not the power to remove them from that list once they were labeled.
The delisting of the Taliban has allowed for formal trade between the Taliban’s Afghanistan and Russia. “Commerce Minister” Haji Nooruddin Azizi told Reuters that, given the sanctions on both the Taliban and Russia, in response to its ongoing invasion and colonization of Ukraine, the countries are looking for ways to engage in trade without using the U.S. dollar.
“We are currently engaged in specialized discussions on this matter, considering the regional and global economic perspectives, sanctions, and the challenges Afghanistan is currently facing,” Azizi told the news agency, “as well as those Russia is dealing with. Technical discussions are underway.”
He added that Taliban leaders hoped to come to similar agreements with China.
“I am confident that this is a very good option … we can use this option for benefit and interests of our people and our country,” he was quoted as saying. “We want to take steps in this area with China as well.”
“A working team composed of members from the (Afghan) Ministry of Commerce and the Chinese embassy which is an authorized body representing China in economic programs has been formed, and talks are ongoing,” Azizi detailed.
Russia and China are some of the Taliban’s closest economic partners. According to Reuters, trade volume between China and Afghanistan stands at around $1 billion, while that between Afghanistan and Russia annually stands at $300 million, hampered for years by the terrorist designation.
Moscow rapidly moved to expand economic ties after greenlighting relations with the Taliban in April. The Afghan outlet Tolo News reported on Wednesday that the Taliban sent representatives to the Kazan Economic Forum in the eponymous Russian city this week, who came away with the signing of several key economic memoranda of understanding.
“Any foreigner who wants to invest in Afghanistan while preserving the country’s national and economic interests is welcome,” Taliban representative Mohammad Younus Mohmand emphasized. “This opportunity is also available to Russia, and we want Russia to be one of our good partners.”
Tolo News estimated that the memoranda of understanding were worth “hundreds of millions” of dollars and reported that Russia is also looking into reducing tariffs on Afghan goods to increase trade volume. The memoranda reportedly involved “banking, construction, mining, and logistics” deals.
While Russia has not confirmed the plans to move away from dollars, the Russian news agency Tass reported on Friday that senior Russian officials were enthusiastic about the country’s business prospects in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
China, meanwhile, welcomed the Taliban’s “foreign minister” Amir Khan Muttaqi to Beijing this week. His Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, showered Muttaqi with supportive words for the Taliban’s brutal jihadist regime, which regularly imprisons, flogs, and tortures perceived violators of sharia.
“China respects Afghanistan’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, respects the Afghan people’s independent choices, their religious beliefs and ethnic culture, and supports their just struggle against foreign aggression,” Wang reportedly said, according to the Chinese state propaganda newspaper Global Times.
China has consistently referred to the Taliban’s violent overthrow of the legitimate government of Afghanistan as a “choice” by the “Afghan people.”
While in Beijing, Muttaqi also met with Pakistani Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar and the three top diplomats discussed expanding the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) into Afghanistan. The BRI is a scheme in which the Chinese Communist Party offers predatory loans with high interest rates and other unfavorable terms to poor countries, which ultimately fail to meet the terms of the agreement. The Chinese government has used that leverage to seize territory and influence the domestic and international politics of targeted countries.
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