Taliban has signed a provisional deal with Russia that will see Moscow supplying gasoline, diesel, gas and wheat to Afghanistan.
\nAccording to international media,\u00a0Acting Afghan Commerce and Industry Minister Haji Nooruddin Azizi\u00a0said on Tuesday his ministry was working to diversify its trading partners and that Russia has offered the Taliban administration a discount on average global commodity prices.
\nAzizi said the deal would involve Russia supplying around one million tonnes of gasoline, one million tonnes of diesel, 500,000 tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas and two million tonnes of wheat annually.
\nThe deal was finalised after an Afghan technical team spent several weeks in discussions in Moscow, having stayed on after Azizi visited there last month.
\nThe 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.
\nNo 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.
\nRussia does not officially recognise the Taliban\u2019s 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.
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