President Joe Biden’s pleas for Saudi Arabia to pump more oil have fallen on deaf ears, with Fox News reporting this week that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is cutting output.
However, other leaders have been more successful when it comes to negotiating energy deals: according to Breitbart, the Taliban has just signed a fuel agreement with Russia.
The Afghan government calls the deal a “good and positive” move
The website pointed to a report from the Russian news agency Tass which stated that Russia has reached a “preliminary agreement” with the fundamentalist government of Afghanistan.
Under its terms, the regime will “1 million tons of petrol, 1 million tons of diesel fuel, 500,000 tons of LNG and 2 million tons of wheat every year.”
Zamir Kabulov serves as Russian special presidential envoy for Afghanistan, and he confirmed that such an agreement has been reached between the two countries.
However, Kabulov stressed that the agreement remains preliminary, telling Tass that specific details regarding the deal must still be worked out.
Abdul Salam Javad is a spokesman for the Taliban’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and he told Afghanistan’s Tolo News that the agreement is aimed at bringing badly needed fuel ahead of cold weather.
“We are trying to immediately import it to Afghanistan via railway or trucks before the winter to prevent the rise in prices in the winter,” Javad was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Investment (ACCI) also welcomed the agreement as being beneficial to the country.
The deal may be a part of an attempt by Russia to secure mining rights
ACCI member Khanjan Alokozai told Tolo News, “The impact of this contract is good and positive on our market because Russian prices are lower than the international price.”
Yet as Breitbart pointed out, it still remains unclear how Afghanistan’s regime will pay for the influx of Russian goods.
One possibility is that Russia will provide the food in fuel in exchange for mining rights. A Breitbart report from last year noted that Afghanistan is estimated to hold as much as $3 trillion worth of the rare minerals needed to produce rechargeable batteries and solar panels.