Taliban official to attend China’s Belt and Road Forum as Beijing steps up Afghan engagement

The Taliban will attend China’s Belt and Road Forum this week, a spokesman for the Islamic group ruling Afghanistan said.

The move underscores Beijing’s growing official ties with the Afghan administration, despite its lack of formal recognition by any government.

Taliban officials and ministers have at times travelled to regional meetings, mostly those focused on Afghanistan, but the Belt and Road Forum is among the highest-profile multilateral summits the group has been invited to attend.

The two-day forum starting on Tuesday marks the 10th anniversary of President Xi Jinping’s ambitious global infrastructure and energy initiative, billed as recreating the ancient Silk Road to boost global trade.

06:32

China’s Belt and Road, 10 years on

The Taliban’s acting minister for commerce and industry, Haji Nooruddin Azizi, will travel to Beijing in the coming days, a ministry spokesman told Reuters in a text message.

“He will attend [the forum] and will invite large investors to Afghanistan,” the spokesman said.

Impoverished Afghanistan could offer a wealth of coveted mineral resources. A mines minister estimated in 2010 that Afghanistan had untapped deposits, ranging from copper to gold and lithium, worth between US$1 trillion and US$3 trillion. It is not clear how much they are worth today.

China has been in talks with the Taliban over plans – begun under the previous Western-backed government – of building a possible huge copper mine in eastern Afghanistan.

China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Azizi will also continue discussions in Beijing on plans to build a road through the Wakhan corridor – a thin, mountainous strip in northern Afghanistan on the Chinese border – to provide direct access to China, the spokesman said.

What is the Wakhan Corridor and why is China worried about it?

Officials from China, the Taliban and neighbouring Pakistan said in May that they would like the belt and road to include Afghanistan, and for the flagship China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to be extended across the border to Afghanistan.

The Taliban have not been formally recognised by any government since taking control of Afghanistan two years ago as US and Nato forces withdrew.

A series of restrictions on women’s access to public life and the barring of many female NGO staff from work has increased roadblocks to recognition, especially by Western countries, officials and international relations analysts say.

01:26

Taliban bans women from visiting popular national park in Afghanistan

China, which has highlighted its desire to maintain stability in the region, has boosted engagement with the Taliban. It became the first country to appoint a new ambassador to Kabul since the group took power, and has invested in Afghan mining projects.

The Chinese ambassador presented his credentials to the Taliban’s acting prime minister last month. Other nations have kept on previous ambassadors or appointed heads of mission in a charge d’affaires capacity that does not involve formally presenting credentials to the government.

South China Morning Post