The Ministry of Energy of Kyrgyzstan plans to start electricity exports through Afghanistan to Pakistan under the CASA-1000 project next year.

The $1.2bn CASA-1000 regional power project is designed to interconnect the power grids of the four participating countries, allowing for hydro power-generated electricity to be exported from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Based on Kyrgyzstan’s plan, about 1.25 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity will be exported to South Asia during the summer of next year.

Exports will increase to 1.7 billion kilowatt-hours in 2026 and to 1.75 kilowatt-hours in 2028.

Earlier this year, Kyrgyzstan signed a joint declaration with Pakistan and Tajikistan to resume the CASA-1000 project.

The World Bank has also announced that it has agreed to resume the project.

Twenty people died after a boat sank in a river in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province on Saturday, officials said.

The incident happened at 7:30 am on Saturday in Basol area of ​​Mohmand Dara district, the provincial department of information and culture said.

This boat was carrying 25 people, including women and children, 20 of whom died and five others were rescued.

According to officials, the bodies of five people have been found so far and the search for other bodies continues.

The situation in Afghanistan highlights the need to strengthen Tajikistan’s border with the country and take other measures to ensure regional stability, Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov said.

“In the Central Asian region, the situation in Afghanistan remains the main source of instability. Numerous radical groups have gained a foothold there, stepping up attempts to promote their ideas in the neighboring countries. The risk of gangs and terrorism spilling outside the country is growing,” he pointed out, addressing a meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Council of Defense Ministers in the Kazakh city of Almaty, TASS news agency reported.

According to him, all this requires “constant monitoring and prompt measures aimed at ensuring regional stability.”

“Those particularly include efforts to strengthen the Tajik-Afghan border,” he noted.

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) has previously dismissed countries’ security concerns over Afghanistan, emphasizing that it will not allow Afghanistan’s soil to be used against any other country.