Afghanistan's Taliban authorities are hosting a trilateral meeting with China and Pakistan on August 20, as Beijing looks to de-escalate tensions between the two countries by incentivizing cooperation through new trade and investment opportunities amid a flurry of diplomatic outreach.
The daylong meeting is expected to cover joint efforts to combat terrorism and the expansion of China's trillion-dollar global infrastructure project, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), into Afghanistan through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
This is a $60 billion series of projects launched by Islamabad and Beijing under the umbrella of the BRI.
"Comprehensive discussions will be held on a number of important issues, including political, economic, and regional cooperation among the three countries," Hafiz Zia Ahmad, a deputy spokesman for Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry, said in a post on X ahead of the meeting.
Obtaining a formal deal to extend CPEC to Afghanistan would not only be a boost for a cash-strapped Taliban searching for international legitimacy, it would also mark a diplomatic win for Beijing as it steps up its engagement and adapts to new shifts across the region.
Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi is hosting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Pakistani counterpart, Ishaq Dar.
Wang's trip to Kabul follows high-profile meetings in New Delhi where Beijing looked to capitalize on tensions caused by US tariffs on Indian goods. A Chinese Foreign Ministry statement said an agreement was reached to tackle Beijing's simmering border dispute with New Delhi.
Following the trip to Afghanistan, Wang will travel to Islamabad for a three-day visit ahead of the annual Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit at the end of August, where China will host leaders and top officials from Pakistan and India as well as leaders from Russia, Central Asia, Belarus, and Iran.
Although neither China nor Pakistan has formally recognized the Taliban government, Beijing has acted as a facilitator behind the scenes.
The discussions in Kabul mark the first time that officials have met since May.
That meeting saw a verbal agreement from Beijing to extend the trade and infrastructure links that it has already built up through CPEC over the past decade to Afghanistan. Pakistan also upgraded its diplomatic relations with the Taliban in its aftermath by sending its first ambassador to Kabul since the militant group seized power in 2021.
Back then, many saw the Taliban's return as a strategic win for Pakistan, given its historical ties to the group, but relations between them have deteriorated.
Islamabad has accused the Afghan Taliban of allowing groups like Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to launch attacks across the border. The TTP, formed in 2007, shares ideological roots with the Afghan Taliban but operates independently.
The TTP has also threatened Chinese interests, particularly CPEC, where Chinese nationals working on projects in Pakistan have become a regular target for attacks. Since 2021, 14 terrorist attacks have taken place in the country targeting Chinese citizens.
China has pushed for joint law enforcement cooperation between the Taliban and Pakistan, and that appears to have accelerated since officials last met in May.
The Taliban has reportedly pledged it would not allow Afghan territory to be used for TTP operations, and China's special envoy on Afghan affairs, Yue Xiaoyong, visited both Afghanistan and Pakistan in July.
CPEC was framed as a flagship part of the BRI when it was launched in 2015, but it has since become something of a cautionary tale for China as it has grappled with delayed projects, cost overruns, security concerns, and escalating debt stress in Pakistan.
Since then, Beijing has been reluctant to greenlight large-scale projects for CPEC and has since sought to see through its most viable pre-existing ones.
That caution will also follow any movement on integrating Afghanistan into the infrastructure project.
Beijing's interest in linking Afghanistan to BRI through CPEC predates the Taliban's return to power, but limited practical progress has been made despite a renewed interest from China in Afghanistan's substantial mineral and resource wealth.
It still remains uncertain at what pace China will look to formally incorporate Afghanistan.
Improving relations between the Taliban and Islamabad and improving security cooperation are precursors that Beijing will look to build on that progress through its meetings this month.
But implementing projects on the ground in Afghanistan has always proved difficult and any new projects on an extended CPEC will have to contend with a still volatile security situation on the ground.
(RFE/RL/NS)
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