Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and his counterpart Bilawal Bhutto Zardari met in Islamabad on Saturday. The two resolved to work together on the reconstruction of Afghanistan and on extending the $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to neighboring Afghanistan. After the meeting, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry issued a joint statement saying, “Both sides have agreed to continue their humanitarian and economic assistance to the Afghan people and expand CPEC in Afghanistan.”
Taliban in dire need of investment
Chinese and Pakistani officials have discussed extending the CPEC project to Afghanistan, built under the BRI that began nearly a decade ago. The cash-strapped Taliban have also expressed their willingness to participate in the project and seek investment for the infrastructure. Amir Khan Muttaqi, the foreign minister in the Taliban government, also met his Chinese and Pakistani counterparts in Islamabad and reached the agreement. His deputy spokesman Hafiz Zia Ahmed confirmed this.
Taliban sympathizers
The Taliban have also expressed hope from China to boost investment in the country’s rich resources, estimated at $1 trillion. The Taliban government signed its first contract in January with a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation to extract oil from the northern Amu Darya basin. The ministers of China and Pakistan have also insisted on unfreezing the foreign financial assets of Afghanistan. China, Russia and Iran are among the countries pushing for good relations with the Taliban. Despite not giving formal recognition, they have provided crores of aid to the Taliban.