Afghanistan has been under occupation for the last 20 years, until the complete withdrawal on August 15, 2021. The US forces presence in Afghanistan marked the longest presence ever. There was no other country where the US had military presence for two decades. During the course of 20 years, and with the full engagement of the international community, nothing substantially changed in Afghanistan. There is quite evidence how it ended in war, but in the economic landscape it was also a failure.
The Afghans become poorer despite showering billions of dollars. It was expected there would be no poor community, or at least it would be at a lower point. However, this money did not really help; maybe this is because the US did not want that.
There were several indications that the US internally stopped running infrastructure projects. It has been said that former President Hamid Karzai told the US officials that they are working in five water dams to generate electricity. However, the appeal was rejected by the US side, and forced him to buy electricity from Central Asian states.
Afghanistan paid more money to transform electricity rather than investing in electricity dams, a permanent solution to the shortages of electricity.
This is just one example and there are many more of such. Meanwhile, the US was also not happy with investments made by other countries, especially from China and Russia. Despite that, China did not stop from investing in Afghanistan as well as providing scholarships for the Afghan students.
China investing $10b in Afghanistan
Afghanistan Ministry of Mines and Petroleum had said that Chinese Company “Gochin” is ready to invest $10 billion in Afghanistan’s lithium deposits, and the Taliban Acting Minister for Mine and Petroleum, Shahabuddin Delawar also met with the Chinese company representatives in Kabul, where they explored the project.
The Afghan ministry had expressed hope on the project, saying that the investment would create 120,000 direct jobs and indirectly to another million of Afghans.
The ministry also hinted that two Chinese companies are interested in repairing the Salang Pass within seven months. The companies also promised to carve another tunnel to make travel to the Afghans.
The company said that the lithium deposits will be getting done inside Afghanistan, and in order to go with the project, they also built a hydroelectric dam. Kumar and Laghman Road will also be asphalted to make the transportation easy.
At the start of the year, Afghanistan and China signed the extraction contract for the Amu oil field. The Chinese company named “China Petroleum Economics and Information Research Center (CPEIC) inked the agreement in which Afghanistan’s share is 20 percent at the moment.
This shows that China is more interested and already has increased its efforts to help Afghans via economic ties and it has been a great achievement if the Chinese company invests on estimated worth over $1 trillion lithium deposits.
Beefing up security
Reportedly, what has stopped the Chinese company from more investing in Afghanistan is the fragile security situation. With the return of the Taliban to power, it was hoped that there would be no security incidents; however, security incidents have been frequently the case.
Undoubtedly, China wants to invest more if the Taliban guarantee security for their workers and their assets. The Taliban had time and again assured to maintain security and firmly fight against terrorists. The Taliban spokesman had earlier said that China wants to invest in some sectors and currently they are in talk. Another project, “Mes Aynak” the country’s largest copper mine was also used to extract by the Chinese companies but due to security issues, the project did not end well. It has been reported that several elements in the past government had received money from foreigners to insecure the place of Aynak.
However, the current ruler of Afghanistan, Taliban, said they are fully ready to maintain security of the Chinese companies and workers.
Daesh is not a major threat
On the issue of Islamic State (IS), aka Daesh, the Taliban spokesman said that Daesh is not a major problem and they will not let the group gain more ground. He also said that Daesh has no significant presence in the country and they need to hide themselves as the Taliban security forces are chasing them.
However, still the Daesh managed to carry out some activities like blast in Kabul, and some provinces, including direct attacks on Taliban meetings. The group had also taken responsibility for attacks on a hotel in Kabul, famous for Chinese guests. Daesh also attacked Russian and Pakistan embassies in Kabul.
In return, the Taliban have intensified attacks on the Daesh hideouts, and killed key Daesh members. Daesh members were also arrested and their family members were shifted to the safe place.
Particular, Daesh had actively targeted Chinese sites, a neighboring country that has been involved in construction and reconstruction of Afghanistan.
