India and Afghanistan are likely to announce an air cargo service to help increase trade that both say is stymied because of their tense political relations with Pakistan. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are meeting in Amritsar, for the Heart of Asia conference that is aimed at stabilising Afghanistan. Officials say that the focus of the air cargo service is to improve landlocked Afghanistan’s connectivity to key markets abroad and boost the growth prospects of its fruit and carpet industries, while the country battles a deadly Taliban insurgency. Afghanistan depends on the Karachi port for its foreign trade. It is allowed to send a limited amount of goods overland through Pakistan into India, but its imports from India are not allowed along this route.
Afghan director general for macro-fiscal policies Khalid Payenda said that the potential for trade with India, the largest market in the region, was far greater than allowed by land and so the two countries had decided to use the air route. He said that a joint venture involving an Afghan and an Indian cargo firm would be set up and that the two governments were working to set up infrastructure at airports in Kabul and Delhi. An Indian government source attending the meeting in Amritsar said air cargo route details were still being worked out and could include Kandahar as a point of origin for shipping fruit directly to India.
