Taliban Aims to Create Energy Trade Hub Eyeing Russian Oil Exports

The Taliban, who govern Afghanistan, are working with Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to create a regional energy trade hub that would facilitate oil sales from Russia to South Asia, Taliban acting commerce minister Nooruddin Azizi told Reuters this week. Representatives of Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan have recently discussed in Kabul the idea of creating an energy and logistics hub in the Herat province in western Afghanistan.

The three countries plan to invest in the hub, which is expected to be a hub for oil from Russia to the…