Pakistan says Reduced Trade with Afghanistan Serves Its Security Interests
DID Press: Amid escalating political and economic tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said that declining trade between the two countries serves Pakistan’s national interests by helping control borders and curb smuggling and militant infiltration.
In an interview with Geo News on Wednesday, Asif dismissed concerns that reduced trade would harm Pakistan’s economy, saying, “If Afghanistan chooses to import goods via Iran, Turkey, Turkmenistan, or even India, it makes no difference to us. This decision causes no loss to our economy — in fact, it brings us relief.”
The minister claimed that a large portion of goods exported from Karachi to Afghanistan re-enter Pakistan illegally. He added that cutting trade ties would “help prevent smuggling and reduce the entry of terrorist elements through shared borders.”
He stressed that “less cross-border movement means fewer militants entering Pakistan under the guise of trade, making border management easier for us.”
Asif’s comments came in response to recent remarks by Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban’s deputy prime minister for economic affairs, who urged Afghan traders to lessen their reliance on Pakistan and seek alternative trade routes in the region.
Baradar warned Afghan businesses that they have three months to shift their import and export operations away from Pakistan, saying that any trader continuing commerce with Pakistan afterward would lose Taliban government support. He also criticized the low quality of Pakistani pharmaceuticals, giving Afghan importers a three-month deadline to halt medicine imports from Pakistan.
According to Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper, the closure of the Torkham border crossing over the past month has cost bilateral trade more than $4.5 billion, with Pakistan reportedly losing 65% of its market share in Afghanistan.
Islamabad, however, maintains that reduced trade translates into greater border security and serves its domestic interests.
Economic analysts warn that if the current trend continues, Pakistan risks permanently losing Afghanistan’s traditional market to Iran, China, and India, who are rapidly expanding their economic influence in the country.