India and Afghanistan are set to deepen trade ties through Iran’s Chabahar port and new cargo flights from Delhi and Amritsar to Kabul. The move, announced during Afghan Trade Minister Nooruddin Azizi’s visit, includes commercial attaches, investment incentives, and streamlined logistics. Kabul is shifting away from Islamabad to boost exports.
What do two friendly countries do when they have a wedge in the middle? They bypass it. That’s exactly what India and Afghanistan are planning to do with the roadblock called Pakistan. Kabul and New Delhi are set to expand bilateral trade both through the sea by leveraging Iran’s Chabahar port more extensively. The two countries are also gearing up to enhance bilateral trade by setting up two dedicated cargo flight routes, officials of India and Afghanistan announced on Friday.
With Afghanistan’s acting Minister of Industry and Commerce Nooruddin Azizi on a five-day visit to India, officials announced the launch of cargo flight routes to Kabul from Delhi and Amritsar. The move, confirmed by India’s Joint Secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs Anand Prakash, comes alongside a decision to post dedicated commercial attaches in both Delhi and Kabul.
The bilateral trade between India and Afghanistan is currently valued at over USD 1 billion, and both nations, once contiguous neighbours, are set to expand it.
India and Pakistan are legally contiguous neighbours, but they no longer share a land border for trade or transit because of Pakistan’s illegal occupation of Gilgit-Baltistan. That makes direct overland access between New Delhi and Kabul practically impossible. As a result, alternatives now lie either in air routes or multimodal corridors that bypass Pakistan entirely through Iran’s Chabahar port.
The joint announcement by Indian and Afghan officials comes a day after Azizi met India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
Responding to India Today Digital’s question on whether improved Pakistan-Afghanistan relations in future could affect Kabul’s ties with New Delhi, Azizi said, “We never wanted violence. Afghanistan has witnessed enough bloodshed. Business and politics should not be mixed. Our focus is on creating a conducive business environment for the country’s uplift.”
TALIBAN-LED GOVT INVITES INDIAN BUSINESSES TO INVEST IN AFGHANISTAN
Azizi, heading a large business delegation, used the visit to push for greater reliance on Iran’s Chabahar port, where India has invested heavily as a gateway for Afghan goods.
He specifically requested scheduled shipping services from the port, construction of dry ports in Afghanistan’s Nimruz province near the Iranian border, and smoother handling of Afghan cargo at India’s Nhava Sheva Port in Maharashtra.
Azizi also extended an open invitation to Indian businesses to participate in sectors such as mining, agriculture, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, IT, energy, and textiles. He announced several new incentives, including a 1% tariff on raw materials and machinery, free land allocations, reliable power supply, and proposed five-year tax exemptions for new industries—particularly those established by returning Afghan refugees.
Nooruddin Azizi also encouraged greater engagement from the Afghan Sikh and Hindu communities and reaffirmed Afghanistan’s commitment to ensuring a peaceful, inclusive, and business-friendly environment for all partners.
Indian authorities have also pledged swift follow-up on the same, including eased business visa processing and strengthened banking channels despite ongoing sanctions hurdles.
Cargo flight operations on the Kabul-Delhi and Kabul-Amritsar sectors are expected to start soon, which will enable faster movement of perishable Afghan exports such as fresh fruits and medicinal herbs. These commodities suffer from delays in ground transit.
Areas flagged for collaboration include pharmaceuticals, cold-chain infrastructure, food processing plants and mineral extraction ventures.
The backdrop to these agreements is Kabul’s deteriorating transit relationship with Pakistan.
Last month, amid Pakistan and Afghanistan’s cross-border attacks, dozens of Afghan trucks were stranded with produce rotting when the frontier shut on October 12.
Losses exceeded $100 million on both sides, and up to 25,000 border workers were affected, according to the Pakistan Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PAJCCI).
Following this, Afghan deputy PM Baradar warned traders that Kabul would not intervene if they kept relying on Pakistan.
