Islamabad (TIP): In a first, a private trader in India has exported commercial goods to Uzbekistan through Pakistan and Afghanistan in a historic trade activity linking the four countries, according to a media report. Trucks carrying 140 tonnes of cargo, mostly sugar from India, departed Kabul on March 16 for the Uzbek capital Tashkent, the Voice of America reported on Wednesday.
The shipment arrived in the Afghan capital a day earlier from Pakistan via the Torkham border crossing between the countries, a spokesperson of the Taliban’s Ministry of Industry and Commerce MaulanaZaheer was quoted as saying in the report.
The ministry organised a special ceremony to facilitate the transit of the Indian goods, hailing it as a major step towards turning Afghanistan into a key trade link between Central and South Asia. The commercial cargo originated from Mumbai and travelled through the Karachi seaport in Pakistan earlier this month before being trucked to its Uzbek importer under a recently inked bilateral transit trade agreement between Pakistan and Uzbekistan, a Pakistani official told the state-owned American radio broadcaster.
(PTI)