Iran calls for fewer border barriers as trade with Afghanistan expands

Iran says reducing border and customs barriers is essential to increasing trade and economic exchanges with Afghanistan, as officials report a sharp rise in rail freight between the two countries.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said at a weekly press briefing that Tehran and Kabul have discussed ways to facilitate economic and commercial cooperation, particularly by reducing customs and border obstacles.

Baghaei said the issue was discussed during a meeting between Afghanistan’s Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and Iran’s president. He added that important measures have since been placed on the agenda and that constructive exchanges have continued at the ministerial level.

The Iranian official expressed hope that the process would help increase bilateral trade and remove existing obstacles to the movement of goods between the two countries.

Meanwhile, Jabbar Ali Zakari, Iran’s deputy minister of roads and urban development and head of the country’s railway company, said rail freight between Iran and Afghanistan has increased significantly.

Zakari said less than 15,000 tonnes of goods were transported by rail between the two countries annually in the past, while the figure has now reached around 130,000 tonnes per month.

He said Iran expects the volume to reach approximately 1.5 million tonnes annually if the current trend continues.

Iranian officials say expanding railway links with Afghanistan and other regional countries could further strengthen trade, transit and connectivity between Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia.