The Taliban government in Afghanistan signed a deal with Russia to buy gasoline, diesel, gas and wheat.
Under the deal, Russia would supply one million tonnes of gasoline, one million tonnes of diesel, 500,000 tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas and two million tonnes of wheat annually to Afghanistan.
Acting Afghan Commerce and Industry Minister Haji Nooruddin Azizi disclosed this development to media.
Azizi said his ministry was working to diversify its trading partners and that Russia has offered the Taliban administration a discount on average global commodity prices.
Afghan Minister said the agreement would be in place for an unspecified trial period and both sides are signing a longer-term deal.
Both the countries finalised the deal after an Afghan technical team spent several weeks in discussions in Moscow, having stayed on after Azizi visited there last month.
The move, the first known major international economic deal struck by the Taliban since it returned to power more than a year ago, could help to ease its isolation that has effectively cut it off from the global banking system.
No country formally recognises the Taliban, which fought a 20-year insurgency against Western forces and their local Afghan allies before sweeping into Kabul as US troops withdrew.
Russia does not officially recognise the Taliban’s government, but Moscow hosted leaders of the movement in the run-up to the fall of Kabul and its embassy is one of only a handful to remain open in the Afghan capital.
