Representatives of the Afghan Taliban government are expected to attend the upcoming Belt and Road Forum (BRF) for International Cooperation in Beijing, according to Reuters.
Chinese experts believe the Taliban’s presence at the forum – an open and inclusive international platform – underscores China’s growing ties with the Afghan administration and its support for the war-torn country to get involved into the international community.
The Taliban’s acting minister for commerce and industry, Haji Nooruddin Azizi, will lead a team to visit Beijing for the Belt and Road Forum, according to Reuters citing ministry spokesperson Akhundzada Abdul Salam Jawad.
According to the report, Taliban representatives are expected to want to attract investors to Afghanistan, have discussions with China on copper mining and a plan to build a road in northern Afghanistan to provide direct transport access to China.
Taliban’s attendance highlights China’s efforts to provide Afghanistan with a broad platform to get involved in the international community and seek more opportunities to develop its domestic faltering economy and livelihood, Zhu Yongbiao, director of the Center for Afghanistan Studies in Lanzhou University, told the Global Times on Sunday.
Both the Taliban and the previous administration have favored the BRI project, with the Taliban holding great expectations of drawing in investment from China to fund its infrastructure projects, to rebuild connections to the international community and lift itself out of the economic doldrums, Zhu said.
Chinese experts believe the Taliban’s attendance at the forum underscores China’s growing ties with the Afghan administration and its support for the country.
The third BRF is to be held from October 17 to 18 in Beijing, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced last week. Drawing representatives from over 130 countries and 30 international organizations, the BRF is expected to highlight the remarkable achievements that have been made in the joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Since 2022, some Chinese companies resumed projects in Afghanistan including drilling for oil, and it would be great if progress could be made during this BRF on a huge copper mine in eastern Afghanistan and on resumption of more cooperation projects, Yin Gang, a research fellow at the Institute of West-Asian and African Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Sunday.
(Global Times)
