Russia courts Taliban in $3 trillion Afghan mineral push
Russia plans to support the Taliban in exploiting Afghanistan's rich natural resources, including gold. A detailed examination of these resources has already begun. American geological services estimate their worth at about $3 trillion.
The Russian Business Center in Afghanistan has announced its key task: developing a detailed geological map of Afghanistan's mineral resources. The goal of this initiative is to assist the Taliban authorities in organizing and developing the extraction of these valuable resources.
The head of the Center, Rustam Khabibullin, revealed that field studies have already been conducted in three provinces: Kunduz, Takhar, and Badakhshan. According to "The Moscow Times," preliminary results indicate that the size of the deposits significantly exceeds previous forecasts made by Soviet and Western geological institutions.
Gennady Teslenko, a geologist directing the Mineral Resource Base Research Service at the Russian Business Center, emphasized that sample analyses revealed an unexpectedly high content of valuable resources.
According to his data, the content of precious metals is eight times higher, and rare earth metals are as much as twelve times higher than previous predictions. The discovered precious metals include silver, gold, platinum, and palladium, while the rare earth metals include lithium, tantalum, niobium, cesium, rubidium, beryllium, and cadmium.
Russia strengthens ties with the Taliban
The Taliban government is not officially recognized internationally. The main reasons are its failure to meet commitments such as protecting human rights, creating an inclusive government, or combating terrorism and drug trafficking.
The Taliban remain a banned organization in Russia, yet Russian authorities regularly invite their delegations to diplomatic events and high-level conferences.
Moscow is considering removing the Taliban from the list of terrorist organizations. In May 2024, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice submitted a report to President Vladimir Putin justifying this decision.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova explained that this step is pragmatic, as the Taliban control Afghanistan, and cooperation with them is essential for combating drug trafficking, terrorism, and cross-border crime.
