Taliban tries to recover economically through partnership with Turkmenistan

The Taliban government in Afghanistan is facing a complex economic reality, which poses questions about the future of its existence and how it will provide the basic living needs of the people in order to be able to tighten its grip more on the country, as well as which countries are closest to helping it.

The Central Asian countries are emerging as a thorny ally of the Taliban movement due to several regional and international complications that the scene carries, and part of this complexity appears in the Taliban’s relationship with the Republic of Turkmenistan, which comes between the aspiration for investment cooperation and military border clashes.

Turkmenistan and aspects of economic cooperation with the Taliban

Taliban acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi met with Turkmen officials during his visit on January 16 to discuss economic cooperation between the two countries, expressing his hope to work on the TAPI gas pipeline project next spring.

During his meeting with Turkmen Foreign Minister RaşitMeredow, Muttaqi discussed the construction of electricity and energy projects between the two countries, as well as trade exchange and cooperation on the level of transfer of expertise between specialists in the economy to help Kabul overcome its crises.

In recent data provided by the Afghan Chamber of Commerce and Investment (ACCI) on January 16, it was pointed out that trade rates between Afghanistan and Central Asian countries increased during the past year, especially with Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

In light of the increase in the volume of trade exchange with Turkmenistan, the data revealed a decline in the same cooperation with Pakistan by 26% from the previous year of the study, as the percentage of Afghanistan's exports to Central Asian countries amounted to about $33 million and imports exceeded $2 billion.

Economic progress, security problems and international understandings

Economic development needs a conducive security environment to be able to thrive. As for the Taliban, it suffers from an economic delay resulting from the long years of war that the country has lived through. On the other hand, the economy was affected by the decision of the United States to freeze the bank accounts of Afghanistan as well as assets after the Taliban took control of the country, in addition to the International Monetary Fund declaring its inability to help the country due to the instability of the situation and the lack of international recognition of the Taliban government.

Various problems facing the Afghan economy emerge here. In terms of security, the country is still unstable, and ISIS-Khorasan is still a competitor to the Taliban, trying to surprise it from time to time, while al-Qaeda is working to attract members of the lower classes in terrorist organizations to its ranks by directing doctrinal criticism against the Taliban, accusing it indirectly of breaking the law for its application to join the United Nations.

On the other hand, international recognition comes as an important variable in the crisis. Countries that do not have a specific political orientation towards the Taliban will not be able to trust them economically as long as they have not yet obtained international recognition, and recognition in itself has become a bargaining chip in the hands of the West for the Taliban to be committed to achieving its interests in the region.

Hence, the cooperation between the Taliban and Turkmenistan comes as an outlet for the former in order to achieve part of its economic ambitions in the region, but political and security relations remain important in this context. For its part, Turkmenistan maintained extended relations with the government of former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and contacts with the movement before nd after its seizure of power.