Taliban Agrees With China, Pakistan to Bring Belt and Road Initiative to Afghanistan

A loaded truck travels through a newly built tunnel in northern Pakistan's Gojal Valley on Sept. 29, 2015. Aamir Qureshi/AFP via Getty Images

The Taliban has agreed to extend China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects to Afghanistan and pledged to deepen trilateral cooperation with China and Pakistan to achieve “win-win results.”

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang held talks with his Pakistani counterpart, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, and Afghanistan’s acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in Islamabad on May 6.

The ministers agreed to uphold relations, deepen political trust, respect each other’s sovereignty, and handle conflicts through equal consultation, according to a readout by the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

They oppose “illegal unilateral sanctions” against Afghanistan and interference in its internal affairs, the ministry stated.

Afghanistan and Pakistan both pledged to promote trilateral ties with China in politics, security, and economy in order to safeguard their common interests and “achieve mutual benefits and win-win results.”

The three nations agreed to cooperate in the joint construction of the BRI and support the extension of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to Afghanistan, pledging to promote connectivity between their countries.

Muttaqi said the Taliban prioritized developing relations with China and that it wouldn’t allow any force to engage in activities against China and Pakistan using Afghan territory, the ministry stated.

China’s statement made no mention of the situation in Afghanistan, where rights for women have been significantly curtailed since the Taliban took power after the U.S. troop withdrawal from the country in 2021. The Taliban has barred Afghan women from attending universities and secondary schools.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said in a recent report that Afghanistan’s economy has “suffered greatly” under Taliban rule, contracting by 30 to 35 percent between 2021 and 2022. Two-thirds of Afghan households struggled to meet their basic needs, it stated.

In a separate meeting with Muttaqi on May 6, Qin said that China will “stand firmly” with the Afghan people and support Afghanistan in pursuing a development path suited to its national conditions “no matter how the international and regional situation changes.”

China–Afghanistan Relations

China and Pakistan have previously discussed expanding the CPEC projects into Afghanistan. In a joint statement on May 6, the two countries agreed to enhance development in Afghanistan, including through extension of CPEC.

They underscored the need for the international community to provide support to Afghanistan “including through unfreezing of Afghanistan’s overseas financial assets.”

The CPEC is part of the BRI, started by Chinese leader Xi Jinping in 2013. Other countries, including the United States, have criticized the BRI infrastructure program as a “debt trap” for smaller nations.

China has invested more than $62 billion in infrastructure under the CPEC, including the construction of a deep-water port in Gwadar that triggered massive protests in November 2021.

The Taliban hasn’t been recognized as a legitimate regime by any nation, including China, but Beijing has sought to deepen economic ties with the Taliban, with an eye on Afghanistan’s mineral deposits estimated to be worth more than $1 trillion.

Since the Taliban rose back to power in 2021, observers have expressed concern that the power vacuum will be filled by the Chinese regime, which is already seeking to broaden its influence in Central Asia and the Middle East.

Afghanistan's acting first deputy prime minister Abdul Ghani Baradar (L) and China's ambassador at Kabul, Wang Yu, announce an oil extraction contract with a Chinese company in Kabul on Jan. 5, 2023. Ahmad Sahel Arman/AFP via Getty Images

In January, the Taliban inked a $540 million oil deal with Xinjiang Central Asia Petroleum and Gas Company (CAPEIC), based in China, its biggest deal since the takeover.

The deal will provide CAPEIC with a 25-year contract to extract oil from more than 1,700 square miles of the Amu Darya basin in Afghanistan and provides the Taliban with a 20 percent stake in the effort.

The move is viewed by analysts as part of a wider effort by communist China to take advantage of the chaotic U.S. withdrawal and to present an alternative model of international relations in the Middle East.

Andrew Thornebrooke and Emel Akan contributed to this report.