KABUL (The Thursday Times) — Russia and Afghanistan’s Taliban administration have signed 15 economic agreements worth $103 million during a visit to Kabul by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk, covering Afghan imports of essential goods and exports of Afghan fruit to Russia.
Under the deals, the two sides will cooperate on bringing medicines, wheat, flour, and cooking oil into Afghanistan, and on sending fresh Afghan fruit, particularly pomegranates, to the Russian market, Afghan officials said. The agreements were signed in the presence of Overchuk and Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban administration’s deputy prime minister for economic affairs.
Overchuk arrived in Kabul on Thursday at the head of a delegation of about 70 Russian business people working in transport, logistics, agriculture, and pharmaceuticals. He met the Taliban prime minister, Mohammad Hassan Akhund, as well as Baradar and the foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi.
Baradar invited Russian companies to invest in agriculture, mining, roads, railways, and factories, and to set up a special economic zone in Afghanistan, according to a Taliban government statement. He pointed to the country’s “strategic location, abundant resources and a workforce of 24 million people” and asked Moscow to help cut transport and transit costs for Afghan goods.
Overchuk said the companies in his delegation were already working in Afghanistan and that “many others want to start operating in this country”. He said the Taliban administration was interested in Russian chemical fertilisers and in building fertiliser plants on Afghan soil.
Trade between the two countries more than doubled in the first eight months of 2026 to over $349 million, Overchuk said, though the overall volume remains modest.
Russia became the first and so far only country to formally recognise the Taliban government, in July 2025. The Taliban have since held high-level talks with many other governments without winning formal recognition from any of them.
The visit was Overchuk’s second to Kabul. He was part of a delegation led by Sergei Shoigu, then secretary of Russia’s Security Council, that visited in November 2024.
