Landlocked Afghanistan is leaning more heavily on trade routes through Iran and Central Asia to reduce dependence on Pakistan, officials said, as tension between the neighbours escalates, with the Durand Line crossings closed in recent weeks, Reuters reported.

“In the past six months, our trade with Iran has reached $1.6 billion, higher than the $1.1 billion exchanged with Pakistan,” Abdul Salam Jawad Akhundzada, a spokesman for the commerce ministry, told Reuters.

“The facilities at Chabahar have reduced delays and given traders confidence that shipments will not stop when borders close.”

Traders have three months to settle contracts in Pakistan and shift to other routes, said Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, Afghanistan’s deputy prime minister for economic affairs.

Accusing Islamabad of using “commercial and humanitarian matters as political leverage”, he said Afghanistan would not mediate disputes after the deadline and ordered ministries to stop clearing Pakistani medicines, citing “low-quality” imports.

The biggest shift is to Chabahar, used since 2017 under a transit pact with Iran and India. Afghan officials say incentives from tariff cuts and discounted storage to faster handling are drawing more cargo south.

Iran has installed updated equipment and X-ray scanners, while offering Afghan cargo a 30% cut in port tariffs, 75% off storage fees and 55% off docking charges, said Akhundzada, the commerce ministry spokesman.

Reacting to the Afghan authorities’ call for exploring new trade avenues, Ziaul Haq Sarhadi, senior vice-president of Pak-Afghan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry, has expressed concern that Pakistan would lose a big market in both Afghanistan and Central Asian States, with whom Pakistan just recently signed trade agreements worth millions of dollars.

He noted that Afghanistan had the option to sign business deals with almost all Central Asian States along with Iran and Turkiye on easier terms than Pakistan’s, Dawn newspaper reported.

Before Durand Line crossings closure last month, Pakistan was exporting fresh fruits, cement, medicines, fabrics, agricultural tools, shoes, and other products worth $100–200 million per month to Afghanistan.

Zahidullah Shinwari, a former president of Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that besides losing the Afghan and Central Asian States markets, the suspension of trade with Afghanistan would also seriously affect the tax collection of Federal Bureau of Revenue, which was collecting millions of rupees on a daily basis from both exports and imports at all border points.

He said that industry in KP would be particularly hit hard by the trade suspension with Afghanistan as the KP industry was heavily reliant on its products to Afghanistan, while they couldn’t compete with industry in Punjab and Sindh due to several reasons.

“Much of our big industry, especially cement factories, are run by coal imported from Afghanistan, so suspension of coal import from Afghanistan will adversely affect the production capacity of our big industries,” he said.

He warned if the trade with Afghanistan ended permanently, it would result in the closure of a majority of industrial units in KP with hundreds of industrial labour becoming jobless, while the owners would go bankrupt.

Trade between Afghanistan and Pakistan came to a standstill over a month ago after Pakistani airstrikes on Afghanistan and clashes between the two countries.

Recently, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, urged traders to look for new trade avenues, as Pakistan has always created hurdles.

Kyrgyzstan has sharply increased its gasoline exports this year, with Afghanistan emerging as the main destination, according to data from the Kyrgyz National Statistical Committee.

Between January and August 2025, Kyrgyzstan exported 65.5 million liters of motor gasoline valued at 2.6 billion Kyrgyz soms (about $30 million) — nearly double the 35.3 million liters worth 1.4 billion KGS recorded during the same period last year.

Of this total, 59.3 million liters worth 2.36 billion KGS were supplied to Afghanistan, compared to 30.2 million liters worth 1.18 billion KGS in 2024. The surge underscores growing fuel demand across the border, despite restrictions linked to Kyrgyzstan’s preferential fuel import agreement with Russia.

New Export Destinations Emerge

For the first time, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan appeared as export markets in 2025. Kyrgyzstan shipped 1.27 million liters of gasoline worth 48.7 million KGS to Tajikistan — a trade route that did not exist last year. Exports to Uzbekistan, however, dipped slightly to 4.96 million liters, down from 5.07 million liters in 2024, with little change in total value.