KABUL : Afghanistan’s national carrier, Ariana Afghan Airlines, has slashed cargo rates between Afghanistan and India by more than half in a dramatic discount offered only on the Delhi route to increase trade between the 2 countries. The move marks the clearest sign yet that Kabul is accelerating a strategic economic reorientation away from Pakistan and towards Iran, India, and Central Asia.
Starting immediately, Afghan exports to India, primarily pomegranates, almonds, saffron, etc, will fly for $1 per kilogram to Delhi, while imports from India will cost just 80 cents per kilogram on the cargo flight of Ariana Afghan Airlines. “Earlier, Ariana was charging $2 per kilogram for cargo between Delhi and Kabul,” said Mawlawi Bakhturahman Sharafat, the airline’s director general. “Now, it has been instructed to reduce the rate to 80 cents per kg from Delhi to Kabul and $1 per kg from Kabul to Delhi.”
Sharafat described the cuts as unprecedented. He highlighted that “no such discounts have been given to any other foreign routes” and “the special discounts are only for India routes. This shows the strong relationship between the 2 countries.” The director general of the oldest airline of Afghanistan added that Delhi was chosen deliberately, explaining that “we selected Delhi, because people of India, Afghanistan have strong and close ties. Politically we have a good relationship.”
The announcement comes weeks after Pakistan sealed the Torkham crossing, the crossing that once carried the bulk of Pakistan-Afghanistan trade. The crossing remains closed, following Pakistan’s attack on Afghanistan in October. The ties between the 2 countries are at an all-time low. The numbers tell the story of Afghanistan’s pivot. In the past six months, bilateral trade with Iran has soared to $1.626 billion, overtaking the $1.108 billion recorded with Pakistan, according to Afghan government data. Much of that commerce now flows through Chabahar Port on Iran’s southern coast, a facility built with heavy Indian investment precisely to give landlocked Afghanistan a Pakistan-free gateway to the sea.
Last month in New Delhi, Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi urged Indian companies to invest in his country and announced new direct cargo flights linking Delhi with Kabul, Amritsar with Kabul, and Amritsar with Kandahar, routes designed to rush Afghan fresh fruit to Indian tables within hours rather than weeks. With the cargo route discount and push for trade with India, Iran, clearly, Afghanistan is rewriting its economic map, and Pakistan is no longer at its center.
Source : WION
