Pakistan allowing India to deliver wheat to ease Afghan food shortages

Pakistan will allow India to deliver wheat to Afghans amid the country’s economic struggles and food shortages. 

Two Foreign Ministry officials said on Monday that the deal would allow dozens of trucks to get wheat from India starting Feb. 21 via Pakistan’s Wagha border near the city of Lahore, according to The Associated Press.

Officials told the AP the trucks will then go to Afghanistan’s Jalalabad city the following day. 

The agreement comes more than three months after India said it would provide 50,000 metric tons of wheat and essential medicines to Afghanistan. At that time, Pakistan said the aid would be allowed to be transported through its territory, but exact plans were not finalized until last week, the AP reported. 

The agreement comes despite Pakistan and India’s long history of disdain for each other, especially after deadly attacks in India’s section of Kashmir, a disputed territory, left 40 soldiers dead, the AP noted. 

Neither Pakistan nor India has recognized the Taliban government, but Afghanistan’s economy has struggled since the Taliban took over Kabul last year. The United Nations has warned that a million Afghan children are at risk of starvation, the wire service added.

Last week, President Biden announced that half of $7 billion in assets from Afghanistan’s central bank being held in the U.S. would go to humanitarian aid in the country. The other half would be made available to go to the families of 9/11 victims. 

In a statement about the executive order, the White House said the plan is “designed to provide a path for the funds to reach the people of Afghanistan while keeping them out of the hands of the Taliban and malicious actors.”