Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Chinese President Xi Jinping looks to be starting to show his influence in Afghanistan. This was marked by an important meeting on Wednesday, July 28, between the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the Taliban delegation.
The meeting between nine Taliban representatives and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin lasted for two days. Both sides discussed the peace process and security issues in Afghanistan.
According to the report on Thursday’s meeting (12/8/2021) from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the Taliban is expected to play an important role in the process of peaceful reconciliation and reconstruction in Afghanistan.
Wang also said that China hopes the Taliban will crack down on the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, a separatist organization formed by Uighur militants in western China. They are considered a “direct threat to China’s national security”.
China’s goal is apparently not just security alone. International and Middle East observers, Pizaro Gozali Idrus, said in his opinion on the Turkish news agency Anadolu Agency, if the Xi Government’s intention in Afghanistan is actually an economic factor.
Afghanistan has the world’s largest unexploited reserves of natural resources. Such as copper, coal, cobalt, mercury, gold, and lithium, worth more than US $ 1 trillion.
In addition, said Pizaro, China is currently the largest foreign investor in the country competing with India. Therefore, Afghanistan’s stability is the key to the success of China’s major projects in South and Central Asia.
“The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is China’s flagship project in the region and both countries want to involve Afghanistan through highways and railways. Therefore, China and Pakistan are pressing the economic corridor (CPEC) which is part of the Belt Road Initiative (BRI) This initiative was formed since 2013,” he said, quoted Thursday (12/8/2021).
On the other hand, he said, CPEC will not only benefit China and Pakistan but will also have a positive impact on Afghanistan and the surrounding region. China also has an interest in cooperating with Pakistan on at least two things, namely hindering India’s economic maneuvers in the region and ensuring the Pakistani Taliban do not attack the CPEC project.
Pakistan is China’s most powerful ally. China will rely heavily on Pakistan to ensure its projects in Afghanistan and regionally are secure.
The Taliban itself is a Sunni Islamic nationalist movement that effectively controlled almost all of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. This group was formed in September 1994 and has the support of the United States (US) and Pakistan, now China.
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