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☆ Taliban Minister Raises Return of Deported Afghans' Assets in Pakistan Visit
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-17 | by ( Nov. | At A.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +4 min

By Charlotte GreenfieldISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The Taliban's acting commerce minister said he had asked Pakistan to help return the assets of expelled Afghans and discussed ways to overcome Afghanistan's stalled banking sector transactions during a four-day visit to Islamabad this week. Acting minister Nooruddin Azizi's arrival in the Pakistani capital marked the first public visit by a senior Taliban official since Pakistan announced its policy to deport thousands of undocumented Afghans and other foreign citizens after Nov. 1. The Taliban have said the security issues are a domestic matter for Islamabad and called on Pakistan to stop deportations. Azizi said a major focus of the visit had been raising the problem of Afghan deportees being unable to return their assets from Pakistan. Pakistan's commerce minister and a spokesman for the commerce ministry did not respond to request for comment.

Persons: Charlotte Greenfield, Nooruddin, Azizi, Asif Shahzad, Mohammad Yunus Yawar, William Maclean Organizations: Taliban, Pakistan, Reuters Locations: Charlotte Greenfield ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Islamabad, Afghanistan, Islamic Emirate, Uzbekistan, China, Kabul

☆ Taliban minister raises issue of refugee assets during Pakistan visit
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-14 | by ( Charlotte Greenfield | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Naseer Ahmed/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsISLAMABAD, Nov 14 (Reuters) - The Taliban's acting commerce minister met Pakistan's foreign minister in Islamabad this week, an Afghan embassy statement said on Tuesday, discussing trade and how the thousands of Afghan citizens Pakistan is expelling could take cash and other assets back to their homeland. Taliban officials say militancy is an internal matter for Pakistan and have called on Islamabad to halt its deportation of Afghan citizens. Afghan citizens returning to Afghanistan have said there are restrictions on the transfer of cash and property to Afghanistan from Pakistan, where many had built businesses and homes for decades. Last month, Pakistan set a Nov. 1 start date for the expulsion of all undocumented immigrants, including hundreds of thousands of Afghans. Pakistan's foreign office said the Taliban acting commerce minister would also undertake a trilateral meeting with representatives from Pakistan and Uzbekistan on Tuesday.

Persons: Naseer Ahmed, Haji Nooruddin Azizi's, Jalil Abbas Jilani, Jilani, Charlotte Greenfield, Raju Gopalakrishnan Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, United Nations, Thomson Locations: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Balochistan Province, Chaman, Rights ISLAMABAD, Islamabad, Afghan, Karachi, Western, Uzbekistan, South, Central Asia

"We requested China to allow us to be a part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and Belt and Road Initiative... (and) are discussing technical issues today," acting Commerce Minister Haji Nooruddin Azizi told Reuters in an interview a day after the Belt and Road Forum ended in Beijing. The Pakistan "economic corridor" refers to the huge flagship section of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Afghanistan's neighbour. Asked about the MCC talks, Azizi said discussions had been delayed because the mine was near a historical site, but they were still ongoing. Afghanistan and 34 other countries agreed to work together on the digital economy and green development on the sidelines of the Belt and Road Forum on Wednesday. Additional reporting by Ahmad Masih Noori and Charlotte Greenfield in Kabul; editing by Miral FahmyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Haji Nooruddin Azizi, Tingshu Wang, Xi Jinping's, Azizi, Ahmad Masih Noori, Charlotte, Miral Organizations: Reuters, Embassy, REUTERS, Metallurgical Corp, Pakistan Economic, Initiative, China Ltd, MCC, Islamic State, Taliban, Thomson Locations: Afghanistan, Beijing, China, Taliban, BEIJING, Kabul, Pakistan, Afghanistan's, Charlotte Greenfield

[1/5] Chinese President Xi Jinping greets Russian President Vladimir Putin as they attend the opening ceremony of the Belt and Road Forum (BRF), to mark the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, October 18, 2023. Putin and other foreign leaders sat with key Chinese officials from the 25-member Politburo on the front row, as Xi delivered his opening speech. The forum centres on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a grand plan launched by Xi in 2013, that envisioned building global infrastructure and energy networks connecting Asia with Africa and Europe through overland and maritime routes. Western scepticism of Xi's grand plans stems from suspicions over the way it would extend China's global influence, analysts say. Xi is pushing to make the Belt and Road smaller and greener, moving away from big-ticket projects like dams to high-tech ones such as digital finance and e-commerce platforms.

Persons: Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Edgar Su, Xi, Putin, BRI, Viktor Orban, Haji Nooruddin Azizi, Antoni Slodkowski, Simon Cameron, Moore Organizations: Initiative, of, People, REUTERS, Rights, Forum, EU, Washington, Thomson Locations: Beijing, Rights BEIJING, Tiananmen, Asia, Africa, Europe, China, Western Europe, United States, Ukraine

[1/5] Chinese President Xi Jinping greets Russian President Vladimir Putin as they attend the opening ceremony of the Belt and Road Forum (BRF), to mark the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, October 18, 2023. REUTERS/Edgar Su Acquire Licensing RightsBEIJING, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping warned against decoupling from China as he opened the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) forum in Beijing on Wednesday, criticizing Western efforts to reduce dependence on the Chinese economy. The trade disruptions of the pandemic years have also added urgency to the desire to limit their dependence on China. WESTERN SCEPTICISMWestern scepticism of Xi's grand plans stems from suspicions over the way it would extend China's global influence, analysts say. Xi is making the Belt and Road smaller and greener, moving away from big-ticket projects like dams to high-tech ones such as digital finance and e-commerce platforms.

Persons: Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Edgar Su, Xi, Putin, BRI, Viktor Orban, Haji Nooruddin Azizi, Azizi, Xi's, Antoni Slodkowski, Simon Cameron, Moore Organizations: Initiative, of, People, REUTERS, Rights, EU, Washington, Thomson Locations: Beijing, Rights BEIJING, China, Asia, Africa, Europe, Tiananmen, Taiwan, Western Europe, Afghanistan, Northern

REUTERS/Ali Khara/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsKABUL, Oct 14 (Reuters) - The Taliban will attend China's Belt and Road Forum next week, a spokesman said on Saturday, underscoring Beijing's growing official ties with the administration, despite its lack of formal recognition by any government. Taliban officials and ministers have at times travelled to regional meetings, mostly those focussed on Afghanistan, but the Belt and Road Forum is among the highest-profile multilateral summits it has been invited to attend. China has been in talks with the Taliban over plans, begun under the previous foreign-backed government, over a possible huge copper mine in eastern Afghanistan. Officials from China, the Taliban and neighbouring Pakistan said in May they would like Belt and Road to include Afghanistan and for the flagship China Pakistan Economic Corridor to be extended across the border to Afghanistan. China has boosted engagement with the Taliban, becoming the first country to appoint an ambassador to Kabul since the Taliban took power, and invested in mining projects.

Persons: Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, Wang Yu, Ali Khara, Xi, Haji Nooruddin Azizi, Akhundzada Abdul Salam Jawad, Azizi, Akhundzada, Mohammad Yunus Yawar, Charlotte, Joe Cash, William Mallard Organizations: Afghan, REUTERS, Rights, China Pakistan Economic, Taliban, Thomson Locations: China, Islamic Emirate, Afghanistan, Kabul, Rights KABUL, Beijing, Pakistan, China Pakistan, Charlotte Greenfield, Islamabad

☆ Taliban seeks economic self-sufficiency and foreign investment for Afghanistan, minister says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-02 | by ( Mohammad Yunus Yawar | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

KABUL, Jan 2 (Reuters) - The Taliban administration will encourage self-sufficiency and wants international trade and investment, the acting commerce minister said, as Afghanistan faces isolation and suspension of some humanitarian operations over restrictions on women. Another part of their strategy was to boost trade and foreign investment, he said. He said that countries including Iran, Russia and China were interested in trade and investment. Already facing a lack of formal recognition and sanctions hampering the country's banking sector, investors are faced with growing security concerns after attacks on foreign targets in Kabul, claimed by the Islamic State. He added that foreign investors were showing interest in Afghanistan's mining sector, which has been valued at more than $1 trillion.

REUTERS/Ali KharaKABUL, Sept 27 (Reuters) - The Taliban have signed a provisional deal with Russia to supply gasoline, diesel, gas and wheat to Afghanistan, Acting Afghan Commerce and Industry Minister Haji Nooruddin Azizi told Reuters. Azizi 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 (LPG) and two million tonnes of wheat annually. The office of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, who is in charge of oil and gas, also did not immediately respond. He said Afghanistan also received some gas and oil from Iran and Turkmenistan and had strong trade ties with Pakistan, but also wanted to diversify. The European Union will ban Russian crude imports by Dec. 5 and Russian oil products by Feb. 5.

☆ Taliban on the cusp of securing wheat, gas, and oil deal with Russia, officials say
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-31 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Taliban-led Afghanistan is set to strike a deal with Moscow soon on imports of oil and gas. Reuters cited a spokesperson from Afghanistan's ministry of economy, Habiburahman Habib, who confirmed that the officials were negotiating contracts for wheat, gas, and oil. The European Union has similarly urged its members to split from Russian oil, coal, and gas, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen saying that EU countries "simply cannot rely on a supplier who explicitly threatens us." Afghanistan is not the only country to have boosted its energy imports from Russia. Saudi Arabia doubled its Russian oil imports in July, while Cuba started buying Russian oil that same month.

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