Could China become the Taliban’s new benefactor?
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/could-china-become-the-talibans-new-benefactor/
Back on the map
A stable Afghanistan is pivotal to any plans connecting landlocked Central Asian economies—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan—to Pakistani and Indian ports in the Arabian Sea. The Taliban’s victory could provide some of that stability, as it is already a major player (mainly as the provider of security) in the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline project.
Meanwhile, China is planning to expand its BRI to Afghanistan to boost its influence there as the United States withdraws. Beijing is currently building a road through the Wakhan Corridor, a thin strip of land connecting China’s Xinjiang province to Afghanistan, in order to complement the existing road network it built throughout Pakistan and Central Asia as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a key component of the BRI.
Until now, the close relationship between the United States and the Afghan government deterred Kabul’s full participation in the BRI. But the Taliban will have no such reservations: The group’s spokesman, Suhail Shaheen, has said “China is a friendly country and we welcome it for reconstruction and developing Afghanistan.” More stability could put the country back on the map as a major trade route in the region, leading to increased Chinese investment in the trade infrastructure of the country as part of its broader BRI initiative or other projects.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) (一带一路) is a strategy initiated by the People’s Republic of China that seeks to connect Asia with Africa and Europe via land and maritime networks with the aim of improving regional integration, increasing trade and stimulating economic growth.
The name was coined in 2013 by China’s President Xi Jinping, who drew inspiration from the concept of the Silk Road established during the Han Dynasty 2,000 years ago – an ancient network of trade routes that connected China to the Mediterranean via Eurasia for centuries. The BRI has also been referred to in the past as ‘One Belt One Road’.
The BRI comprises a Silk Road Economic Belt – a trans-continental passage that links China with south east Asia, south Asia, Central Asia, Russia and Europe by land – and a 21st century Maritime Silk Road, a sea route connecting China’s coastal regions with south east and south Asia, the South Pacific, the Middle East and Eastern Africa, all the way to Europe.
The initiative defines five major priorities:
policy coordination;
infrastructure connectivity;
unimpeded trade;
financial integration;
and connecting people.
The BRI has been associated with a very large programme of investments in infrastructure development for ports, roads, railways and airports, as well as power plants and telecommunications networks. Since 2019, Chinese state-led BRI lending volumes have been in decline. The BRI now places increasing emphasis on “high quality investment”, including through greater use of project finance, risk mitigation tools, and green finance.
The BRI is an increasingly important umbrella mechanism for China’s bilateral trade with BRI partners: as of March 2020, the number of countries that have joined the Belt and Road Initiative by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with China is 138.
https://www.ebrd.com/what-we-do/belt-and-road/overview.html
As of January 2021, the number of countries that have joined the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with China is 140*.
https://green-bri.org/countries-of-the-belt-and-road-initiative-bri