India holds a healthy relation with Afghanistan concerning trade. Presently, India exports sugar, pharmaceuticals, apparel, tea, coffee, spices, and transmission towers to Afghanistan. The imports largely depend upon dry fruits.
After gaining control over Afghanistan in recent days, the Taliban has stopped all imports and exports from India through transit routes of Pakistan, said The Federation of Indian Export Organisation (FIEO) on Thursday, August 20.
“We keep a close watch on developments in Afghanistan. Imports from there come through the transit route of Pakistan. As of now, the Taliban has stopped the movement of cargo to Pakistan, so virtually imports have been stopped,” Ajay Sahai, FIEO’s director-general, was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
He further added that India is the largest partner of Afghanistan. India exported produce of net worth $ 385 million in 2021 and imported goods worth around $510 Million.
India also has a considerable investment of around $3 billion along with some 400-old projects, some of which are still undergoing in Afghanistan.
The FIEO said that prices of dry fruits in India might increase shortly as the country imports about 85 percent of these commodities from Afghanistan.
“We imported goods worth around USD 510 million. But besides the trade, we have a sizeable investment in Afghanistan. We have invested around USD 3 billion in Afghanistan and there are 400-odd projects in Afghanistan, some of which are currently going on,” he further told ANI and was optimistic about the trade relations despite the worsening crisis in Afghanistan.
On Wednesday, August 18, foreign minister Dr. S Jaishankar said that the government is closely monitoring developments in Afghanistan. He further added that their main focus is on ensuring the security and safe return of Indian nationals who are still stuck there.
“The Government of India is committed to the safe return of all Indian nationals and will institute flight arrangements once Kabul airport is open for commercial operations,” the external affairs ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
