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The Taliban have signed a provisional deal with Russia to supply gasoline, diesel, gas and wheat to Afghanistan, Acting Afghan Commerce and Industry Minister Haji Nooruddin Azizi told Reuters.

Azizi said his ministry was working to diversify its trading partners and that Russia had offered the Taliban administration a discount to average global commodity prices.

The move, the first known major international economic deal struck by the Taliban since they returned to power more than a year ago, could help to ease the Islamist movement's isolation that has effectively cut it off from the global banking system.

No country formally recognises the group, which fought a 20-year insurgency against Western forces and their local Afghan allies before sweeping into Kabul as U.S. troops withdrew.

Western diplomats have said the group needs to change its course on human rights, particularly those of women, and prove it has cut ties with international militant groups in order to gain formal recognition.

Russia does not officially recognise the Taliban's government, but Moscow hosted leaders of the movement in the run-up to the fall of Kabul and its embassy is one of only a handful to remain open in the Afghan capital.

Azizi said the deal would involve Russia supplying around one million tonnes of gasoline, one million tonnes of diesel, 500,000 tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and two million tonnes of wheat annually.

On Wednesday, Russia's state-owned TASS news agency quoted Moscow's special representative for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, as confirming that "preliminary agreements" had been reached on fuel and food supplies to Kabul.

Russia's energy and agriculture ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the agreement. The office of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, who is in charge of oil and gas, also did not immediately respond.

Azizi said the agreement would run for an unspecified trial period, after which both sides were expected to sign a longer term deal if they were content with the arrangement.

He declined to give details on pricing or payment methods, but said Russia had agreed to a discount to global markets on goods that would be delivered to Afghanistan by road and rail.

The deal was finalised after an Afghan technical team spent several weeks in discussions in Moscow, having stayed on after Azizi visited there last month.

ECONOMY IN CRISIS

Since the Taliban regained power, Afghanistan has been plunged into economic crisis after development aid upon which the country relied was cut and amid sanctions that have largely frozen the banking sector.

The trade deal is likely to be watched closely in the United States, whose officials have held regular talks with the Taliban on plans for the country's banking system.

Washington has announced the creation of a Swiss trust fund for some of the Afghan central bank reserves held in the United States. The Taliban have demanded the release of the entire amount of around $7 billion and said the funds should be used for central bank operations.

Azizi said international data showed most Afghans were living below the poverty line, and his office was working to support trade and the economy through international outreach.

"Afghans are in great need," he said. "Whatever we do, we do it based on national interest and the people's benefit."

He said Afghanistan also received some gas and oil from Iran and Turkmenistan and had strong trade ties with Pakistan, but also wanted to diversify.

"A country ... shouldn't be dependent on just one country, we should have alternative ways," he said.

The Group of Seven (G7) nations are trying to find ways to limit Russia's oil export earnings in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine in February.

Moscow has managed to maintain revenues through increased crude sales to Asia, particularly China and India. The European Union will ban Russian crude imports by Dec. 5 and Russian oil products by Feb. 5. (Reuters)

North Korea has completed preparations for a nuclear test and a possible window for carrying it out could be between Oct. 16 and Nov. 7, South Korean lawmakers briefed by its spy agency said on Wednesday.

Preparations for a possible nuclear test by North Korea, which would be the first since 2017, had been completed at the Punggye-ri test tunnel, where the reclusive state conducted six underground tests from 2006 onward, two legislators told reporters after a briefing by the National Intelligence Service (NIS).

The timing of the test could be determined by events like the party congress in China, North Korea's main ally, and the midterm elections in the United States, its chief rival, they said. Also it would depend on whether Pyongyang can bring an outbreak of COVID-19 under control, they said.

"The NIS said they cannot calculate the probability but assumed that North Korea would make a comprehensive decision based on international relations and its COVID situation," said one legislator, Youn Kun-young.

The other lawmaker, Yoo Sang-bum, said the NIS sees North Korea's earlier claim of an end to COVID-19 as "unreliable" because it has repeatedly locked down and then reopened areas near the Chinese border where "mass vaccinations" are underway.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared victory over COVID-19 and eased some restrictions last month, though the country has never confirmed how many people caught the virus, apparently lacking the means to conduct widespread testing.

Early this month, Kim suggested that the isolated country could begin COVID-19 vaccinations in November, warning of a resurgence in outbreaks as levels of immunity formed from previous infections decline around October. (Reuters)

The United States on Wednesday condemned North Korea's latest ballistic missile launches, which came just a day before Vice President Kamala Harris was set to arrive in neighboring South Korea. 

"We remain committed to a diplomatic approach to the DPRK and call on the DPRK to engage in dialogue," a U.S. State Department spokesperson said in a statement, referring to North Korea's formal name -- the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. (Reuters)

The Solomon Islands has told Pacific nations invited to a White House meeting with President Joe Biden it won't sign the summit declaration, according to a note seen by Reuters, prompting concern over the islands' ties to China.

Leaders from the Pacific Island Forum bloc have been invited to the two-day White House summit starting Wednesday, at which the Biden administration seeks to compete with China for influence in the strategically important South Pacific.

The Solomon Islands, which struck a security pact with China in April, wrote to the Pacific Islands Forum and asked it to tell the other members it wouldn't sign a proposed Declaration on the U.S.-Pacific Partnership, to be discussed at the summit on Sept. 29, and needed more time for its parliament to consider the matter, according to the note dated Sunday.

Federated States of Micronesia President David Panuelo said on Tuesday in Washington that countries had been working on the summit declaration - "a vision statement" - that would cover five thematic areas, including human-centered development, tackling climate change, geopolitics and security of the Pacific region, commerce, and industry and trade ties.

The Solomons note said the declaration was "yet to enjoy consensus".

"Solomons does state it won't be able to sign the declaration but it doesn't call on others to follow suit," said Anna Powles, a Pacific security expert at New Zealand's Massey University who has seen the note.

Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare's office did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council declined to comment.

Solomon Islands opposition party leader Matthew Wales wrote in a tweet: "Strange inconsistency. Agreements with China are signed in secret & kept secret. Now insisting Parliament must deal with the regional agreement with the US? Insincerity writ large!"

The Solomon Islands says in the note, signed by its embassy in Washington, that the Pacific Islands Forum already has a mechanism for engaging with partners outside the region.

"Of course, China is a part of that mechanism, hence the U.S. seeking to create alternative architecture such as its own regional partnership framework," Powles said.

Speaking at an event in Washington hosted by Georgetown University, Panuelo said the Pacific island nations had come to realize the importance of "strength in numbers" and called for superpowers to talk to them about the issues most important for the region.

Efforts to reach a final text on the declaration ran into problems this week during a call between the U.S. State Department and Pacific islands ambassadors, when the U.S. side demanded removal of language agreed to by the island countries that Washington address the Marshall Islands' nuclear issue, three sources familiar with the call, including a diplomat from a Pacific island state, told Reuters. (Reuters)