Afghanistan
The Washington peace marks its first year in phone calls and freight
Nikol Pashinyan spent the anniversary of the 8 August 2025 Washington summit on the phone, first with Ilham Aliyev, then with Donald Trump. The operative line came in the second call: construction of the TRIPP corridor is to start “in the near future”.
Kabul turns to its northern door
The Taliban economic commission approved expanding trade through Sher Khan Port with Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and China, and told the public works ministry to build the Afghan section of an ECO rail corridor.
Kabul and Tashkent sign 22 documents worth $200 million
This morning the desk asked which goods would appear when the paperwork did. Cotton appeared first, at 10,000 tonnes on trial with an offer for 100,000 more.
Tashkent sends a 300-strong business delegation to Kabul
Uzbekistan’s deputy prime minister spent the weekend in Kabul with a delegation and a tariff offer. The stated target is $5 billion of trade.
Tajikistan counts 17 dead on the Afghan border in six months
Tajikistan’s Anti-Drug Agency says Tajik forces fought 7 armed clashes with Afghan smugglers in the first half of 2026 and "neutralized" 17 Afghan citizens. In the same report, seizures fell 5% and drug crimes came in below last year’s count. The flow is shrinking on paper while the line gets deadlier, and that combination is the story.
Central Asia’s shortcut to the sea runs through a war
Landlocked Central Asia wants a fast route to the ocean through Afghanistan and Pakistan. The war between them has shut that door for now, and it is pushing Afghanistan’s own trade north into Central Asia instead. Both shifts redraw the region’s map of dependence.
Pakistani airstrikes hit Afghanistan, ending a month of calm
Pakistan struck three Afghan provinces early on 10 June, killing at least 13 people by Kabul’s count, most of them children. It broke more than a month of quiet in a war that has killed hundreds.
Trans-Afghan railway advances as Russian Railways joins the feasibility study
The railway is sold as Central Asia’s own outlet to the sea. Its newest study partner is Russian Railways.
Uzbekistan and Afghanistan Open New Rail Terminal at Hairatan
Port No. 5 received its first freight train on 21 May — a small step in a large corridor ambition
Why the Tajikistan-Afghanistan Border Crisis Could Destabilize Central Asia
A wave of deadly clashes on the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border, including attacks that killed Chinese workers inside Tajikistan in November, is raising the risk of broader instability across Central Asia and putting trade routes, energy links, foreign investment, and regional diplomacy under growing pressure.