The International Road Transport Union (IRU) has announced the activation of a new trade route between Kashgar in China and Kabul.
Kashgar Logistics Center in the Xinjiang region in northwest China said that it has integrated all essential road transportation services under one roof and served to transport goods to West Asia and beyond.
The first truck recently departed from Kashgar – China’s unique TIR hub – after completing all TIR and export customs declaration procedures. Then it crossed the Chinese Khunjerab border, traveled through Pakistan and finally arrived in Kabul.
Islamic Emirate officials said that they are seeking to expand economic relations with all the neighboring countries, both by land and air, because Afghanistan has common economic interests with these countries and wants to be the connecting point of countries and transit.
“We are trying to increase the communication routes with neighboring countries, including China so that our commercial goods can be easily transferred to neighboring countries and imported from these countries to Afghanistan,” said Abdul Latif Nazari, Deputy Minister of Economy.
However, economic experts also believe that increasing trade with China, especially by land, can be considered an important step in the trade relations between the two countries.
According to them, the IEA should focus more on the Silk Road and the Wakhan Corridor.
China is one of the important economic partners of Afghanistan. Currently, several Chinese companies operate in Afghanistan, and the amount of trade between the two countries totals about $1.3 billion a year.
