There has been a flurry of diplomatic activity of regional forces, and also major media attention to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, since the U.S. withdrew its remaining military forces from Bagram Air base in Afghanistan the morning of July 2.
Iran hosted a meeting July 7 of representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban, as well as India’s Minister of External Affairs, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said, “Iran stands by the side of its Afghan brethren. Hosting this contextual negotiation among the high-ranking representatives of Afghanistan was a pride for us.” Zarif and India’s Jaishankar underlined the need to give a boost to intra-Afghan talks to pave the way for participation of all the Afghan sides in the political process of the country.
Inside Afghanistan, the Taliban launched an assault on Qala-i-Naw, the provincial capital of the northwestern Afghani province of Gadghis, reportedly capturing the city’s police headquarters. It is disputed whether or not they captured the entire city.
International media coverage of the future of Afghanistan has been obligated to discuss the role of China and its Belt and Road Initiative. The July 4 issue of the large-circulation Daily Mail of Britain, for example, headlined its coverage “China makes its move on Afghanistan: Beijing prepares to fill the vacuum left by Biden’s premature military exit,” reporting that “[China] wants to extend its ‘Belt and Road ‘ program to Afghanistan.” The Chinese “program would see a direct land corridor between Afghanistan and China through northwest Pakistan constructed,” adding that this would be “a central hub connecting the Middle East, Central Asia and Europe.”
The body of the article contains an accurate map labeled “China-Pakistan Economic Corridor” and the caption labeled “a planned $57 billion China-Pakistan economic corridor will link Gwadar, Pakistan, to China’s far-western Xinjiang district.”
Another article, by OpIndia.com, which bills itself as a “news and current affairs website” launched in 2014, is entitled, “Is China using the US exit from Afghanistan to expand its Belt and Road Initiative?” The article has the familiar line about China’s “debt-trap diplomacy,” but its main focus is on what it calls the “$62 billion CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor,” and the broader Belt and Road.
The July 5 Financial Times carries the nervous headline, “China watches Afghanistan anxiously as the U.S. withdraws: Beijing is ready to cooperate with Taliban to prevent chaos across its border, diplomats say.” Beneath that is a photograph, bearing the caption, “China wants stability in Afghanistan to protect the Belt and Road Initiative, its flagship infrastructure building project in Pakistan and central Asia.”
