IN April, US President Joe Biden ordered the withdrawal of American soldiers before September 11. He claimed that the US government has spent over a trillion dollars over the last 20 years in maintaining the security of Afghan forces. The news scared many Afghan citizens that have fled the country while the Taliban forces have deployed very quickly into many cities including the capital Kabul within days after the US troops left.
Foreign embassies have also left Kabul city. However, China has decided to keep its embassy intact but advised Chinese citizens to stay indoors.
Meanwhile, Russia is adopting the same approach and maintained its embassy unmoved in Kabul city but about 100 employees will be relocated temporary.
Both Chinese and Russian leaders voiced their support for a smooth transfer of power and called the terrorism and military crimes to be contained.
To date, China has dominated the rare earths market globally with estimated 35 per cent of rare earth global reserves come from there. On top of that, China is also an active miner that produced 120,000 metric tonnes or 70 per cent of global output of rare earths in 2018.
In that same year, US mined 15,000 metric tonnes of rare earths.
According to Katawazai, Afghanistan has rare earth elements such as lanthanum, cerium, neodymium, and veins of aluminum, gold, silver, zinc, mercury, and lithium. Rare earths are used in making all appliances including dry cells, electronics, EVs, satellites and aircraft.
In 2020, a magazine report in The Diplomat said that rare earth metals in Afghanistan were estimated to be worth somewhat US$3 trillion.
In fact, the Taliban has reiterated in multiple occasions that they hope to get the support of China to participate in Afghanistan’s reconstruction and development.
The spokesman of Ministry Foreign Affairs in China, Hua Chunying, has expressed the readiness to continue develop good-neighborliness and friendly cooperation with Afghanistan. This comes with a prelude of respecting human rights and eradication of terrorism.
Hence, we are optimistic to foresee a new bilateral tie to be built between China and Afghanistan in many ways, not forgetting that the latter country is a major path of the Silk Road from China in 200 years ago.
Today, the revival of Belt-Road Initiatives will definitely bring prosperity to both countries if bilateral trades cane be established harmoniously.
Dar Wong is a professional in financial industry since 1989. The expressions are solely his own. He can be reached at [email protected].