China's role in Afghanistan
We've touched upon China's investments in mineral exploitation in Afghanistan and IIRC their security interests - so along comes this rather unusual sign:
Quote:
China has signed security and economic agreements with Afghanistan during a rare trip to Kabul by a top Chinese official....Zhou Yongkang, China’s domestic security chief and a member of the ruling Communist Party’s central Politburo, made an unannounced visit to the Afghan capital late on Saturday, holding talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai at his garden palace.
Zhou’s visit was the first to Afghanistan by a senior Chinese leader since 1966 and followed a visit by Karzai to Beijing in June when both countries agreed to cooperate on combating extremism in the region... Zhou signed agreements on increased security and economic cooperation, including a deal to help “train, fund and equip Afghan police.”
Link:http://gulfnews.com/news/world/other...s_DdcQ.twitter and a slightly different report:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-19693005
I thought we had problems with the archaeologists, no Afghanistan does too:eek::
Quote:
Chinese state-owned miner China Metallurgical Group (MCC) operates the $3 billion Aynak copper mine in eastern Logar province, which has been subject to rocket attacks and other raids by insurgent groups looking to disrupt operations. MCC won the contract to develop Aynak in 2008 and it was originally scheduled to begin production in 2013, but work has been delayed by the discovery of a huge and significant archaeological site in the area.
China in Afghanistan, a tale of two mines
Quote:
Beijing clearly has to re-think what it is going to do once 2014 passes. Afghanistan’s proximity to China and the potential knock-on implications in central Asia where China has invested a great deal make it is impossible to ignore.
China may not want to be dragged into Afghanistan’s interminable problems, but it seems impossible to imagine that they are not going to play some role. What this role ends up being is something that the new administration needs to calculate sooner than it wants.
Link:http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/201...-of-two-mines/
China’s Post-2014 Role in Afghanistan
A report from FDD (Washington DC think tank):http://defenddemocracy.org/content/u...ina_Report.pdf
One almost wonders will China reach detente with the anticipated resurgence of the Taliban, as the authors expect. I am unsure if Afghans will welcome the Chinese if they move beyond being investors.
Can China bring peace to Afghanistan?
Ahmed Rashid comments in a BBC News Viewpoint, which appears to be based on an interview with the new Chinese Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-30273431?