Russian deputy PM Overchuk to lead trade delegation to Afghanistan

A high-level Russian delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk will visit Afghanistan in the near future to follow up on trade and economic cooperation, according to Zamir Kabulov, the Russian president's special representative for Afghanistan.

Kabulov made the remarks, according to media reports, at a conference on security in Central Asia and Afghanistan involving the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. He did not give a date for the visit.

He said trade between the two countries was growing steadily and had doubled in volume in the first half of this year. Although still modest compared with Russia's trade with other partners, he said the increase was significant for Afghanistan's reconstruction and development, and that Moscow would try to maintain the pace.

Separately, the Ministry of Public Health said on Sunday that minister Mawlawi Noor Jalal Jalali had met a Russian delegation and representatives of the Russian embassy in Kabul. The two sides discussed cooperation in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and heart disease and training Afghan health workers, and the Russian side expressed readiness to cooperate, the ministry said.