By: Lailuma Noori
It seems that China is making effort to create strong relations with Afghanistan government after the US full withdrawal. China, the biggest investor of the world, is currently implementing diplomacy with Afghanistan.
Relations between the two countries in past years show that their relations are improving by passing each day. Both countries are interested in increasing relations and currently the relations are in high level. According to observers, these relations can focus on economic goals and objectives. This intention must be good in itself and has positive consequences for Afghanistan.
Afghanistan, which has been in war imposed by regional countries, has an important geopolitical position. Insecurities in the past four decades have caused that China’s goal to reactivate the Silk Route and change Afghanistan as crossroad to the Indian ocean and Europe. China’s option for construction this route could reduce China’s dependency on Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Iran as it is short and using of Afghanistan’s trade and mines.
Although China has a short border with Afghanistan, the instability of Afghanistan has led to the instability of the region. In addition, instability in Central Asia directly jeopardizes China’s internal security, especially along the oil and gas pipelines passing through the respective countries.
Afghanistan is a country with the value of its minerals estimated to 3 trillion USD. These natural resources and water of Afghanistan have aroused the greed of our neighbors.
According to China Customs, bilateral trade between China and Afghanistan has now reached more than a billion dollars, showing a double increase in trade. China has repeatedly talked about bringing Afghanistan into a belt and a way to connect this country with Central Asia, China and Pakistan, but in this regard, there less achievements.
China’s economic plans are unlikely to materialize after the withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan as the war and insecurity in Afghanistan continue, which will bring bad consequences for China.
Nevertheless, the complexity of the Afghan war situation has resulted in differentiation of visions in current planning. China, on the other hand, has signed the largest contract for a road from China to Pakistan and through Afghanistan to the Arabian Peninsula worth 14 billion USD, which is in dire need peace and stability in Afghanistan to launch the project.
One of the reasons China has agreed with the US presence in the region was regional stability for its economic plans. Now that China is pushing the United States out of Afghanistan, which is to blame for the instability in the region, the US may be correcting its plans in the region and improving relations.
China’s neighbors in Central Asia are waiting for the country to take advantage of its stable position and play a key role in regional stability. China, which has its own security watchdog, also has high hopes for the Middle East. No one is waiting for China to become a military state of the United States. But Asia hopes that China will play a responsible and visible role in Afghanistan and the region.
China with efforts can do much better than the United States to build and maintain peace. To some extent this has been proven. Pakistan and Iran, which have some influence on Afghan politics, are old friends of China.
We all know that the biggest threat and challenge to China is the presence of extremism in the region and international terrorism in Afghanistan and the existence of strong terrorist bases in neighboring Afghanistan can definitely pose threats to China’s development plans in the region.
The more the economic and trade relationship with China is important for Afghanistan, the more political relations are important for both the countries. Therefore, the people of Afghanistan must take seriously the existing capacities and potentials to expand the scope of most economic, trade and political cooperation to improve the economic, stability and security situation in the country and the region. Given the regional and international context, success in this straight-forward process is certainly not simple but unattainable. Unless security is ensured, foreign investment is impossible and without foreign investment there will be no development in the country’s various sector as agriculture and livestock, industry and services.
