Taliban and Uzbekistan’s Ministers of Transport met in Tashkent to discuss accelerating the construction of the Trans-Afghan Railway.

The parties also reached an agreement to enhance transit transportation through Afghanistan.

Ismatilla Ergashev, Uzbekistan’s Special Envoy for Afghanistan, was also present in this meeting.

On Tuesday, Hamidullah Akhundzada, the Taliban’s Minister of Transportation and Aviation, arrived in Uzbekistan. According to Uzbek media reports, he and Ilhom Makhkamov, Uzbekistan’s Minister of Transport, reviewed the bilateral cooperation between both the countries.

Further details of this meeting have not yet been disclosed.

Reports indicate that the meeting discussed issues related to accelerating the implementation of the Uzbekistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan railway project.

Taliban, Uzbekistan and Pakistan signed an agreement on the railway route known as "Trans-Afghan" in Islamabad in July.

However, no country has recognised the Taliban regime so far, and the implementation of the project remains unclear.

The plan for the "Trans-Afghan" railway line connecting Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan was introduced in 2018 with the goal of establishing an economic corridor linking Central Asia to the Indian Ocean waters.

The construction cost of this railway is estimated to exceed USD 4.5 billion, spanning a length of 573 kilometres. Beginning from Termez, the railway traverses the cities of Mazar-e-Sharif and Kabul in Afghanistan before reaching Peshawar in Pakistan.