The Taliban's Minister of Public Health, Noor Jalal Jalali, has discussed developing long-term health cooperation and importing medicine and medical equipment from Russia in a meeting with Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko. The meeting comes as Afghanistan faces a shortage of pharmaceuticals.
Sharafat Zaman Amarkhil, a spokesman for the Taliban's Ministry of Public Health, announced on Saturday, October 3, that Jalali requested imports of vaccines and modern medical technology from Russia during the meeting. He added that the Taliban minister asked Russia to cooperate in system-building, improving the quality of health services, and enhancing the capacity of medical specialists.
According to Amarkhil, the Russian Health Minister expressed his country's readiness for technical cooperation to strengthen Afghanistan's health sector and said Russia is prepared to expand its technical assistance. Both sides emphasized increasing coordination and developing health relations.
The request to import medicine from Russia comes as the Taliban government has halted medicine imports from Pakistan for about a year due to rising political tensions.
This ban has caused severe medicine shortages in Afghanistan's markets. Although the Taliban have turned to importing drugs from India and Iran, traders say the quality of Iranian medicines is unsatisfactory and that imports from these two countries have not been able to fully fill the void left by the halt in trade with Pakistan.
Source: Taliban Ministry of Public Health
🌐
