#精品长文创作季#
Some time earlier, Afghan Acting Defense Minister Yakub made a special trip to China for a visit.
In addition to the regular issues such as strengthening diplomatic relations and strengthening economic and trade relations, this time Atta also made a request for the opening of the Wakhan Corridor.
For the Afghan side, the opening of the Wakhan Corridor is of great strategic significance and practical economic benefits.
This plays an important role in the subsequent development of various industries in the country, and it is precisely because of this that the Atta military will lower its profile and make corresponding requests.
However, China politely refused such a request, what is the reason for this?
1. One of the poorest countries in the world
Afghanistan is a landlocked country located in central and western Asia, due to the constraints of its own internal conditions, coupled with the devastation of war, Afghanistan's economic development is also extremely backward, and it is one of the poorest countries in the world.
From the perspective of the country's inherent conditions, Afghanistan's main economic source is agriculture, but the arable land area in the country is less than two-thirds of agricultural land, which leads to an extremely insufficient output of domestic agricultural products.
However, Afghanistan's population is relatively dense, according to 2021 statistics, the population of Afghanistan at that time was about 39.8 million, and if Afghanistan's population has maintained steady growth in the past two years, it has already exceeded the 40 million mark.
This means that it is still very difficult for Afghanistan to achieve self-sufficiency in agricultural products, let alone create real economic benefits through the export of agricultural products and the market-oriented marketing of agricultural products.
Of course, the causes of poverty in Afghanistan do not stop there, and from the perspective of history, Afghanistan has indeed been devastated by war.
The Kingdom of Afghanistan was established in the mid-18th century and developed steadily for a century, and after the 19th century, it became a colonial battleground between Britain and Tsarist Russia.
After the modern era, Afghanistan fell into a civil war, which lasted for 30 years, which caused serious damage to the local infrastructure of Afghanistan, and it was very difficult to develop other industries and form a complete market system.
It is precisely because of this that Afghanistan has always been very poor, and even though Afghanistan has received assistance from many other countries in the course of its development in the past few years, it is still difficult to save the declining economy.
It is worth noting that in 2021, NATO countries announced a comprehensive withdrawal of their troops from Afghanistan, which also triggered a rapid evolution of the situation in Afghanistan.
In August of the same year, the Taliban began to invade the capital of Afghanistan and announced the formation of an interim government to take control of Afghanistan.
In order to save Afghanistan's economy, Atta naturally focused on trade. You must know that although Afghanistan is poor, it is sitting on a "mountain of gold and silver".
Afghanistan's main "wealth" may be concentrated in the reserves of natural resources, according to relevant statistics, Afghanistan has very rich mineral resources, the total proven ore reserves are as high as 700 million tons, far more than other Middle Eastern countries.
In addition to this, Afghanistan is also home to the third largest copper belt in the world. At present, Afghanistan has proven copper reserves of up to 11.33 million tons.
You know, copper metal is the most widely used metal products in the modern international market, not only as the main raw material for the production of building materials, but also as the production material of some mat originals, some high-tech industries have a very high demand for this metal.
If Afghanistan can realize the large-scale exploitation of mineral resources and export them to other countries, it will certainly be able to reap high foreign trade returns, so as to enhance the vitality of domestic economic development and establish its complete market system.
In order to realize this vision, the Afghan side is also actively seeking assistance from other countries.
2. Atta's will
Just some time ago this year, Afghan Acting Defense Minister Yakub made a special trip to China for a special visit.
And he naturally came with a purpose, he wanted to try his best to promote the opening of the Wakhan Corridor, so what is the significance of this Wakhan Corridor for Afghanistan? Geographically, Afghanistan is a landlocked country located on the plateau of Western Asia.
It borders China to the northeast. The long, narrow road between Tajikistan and Pakistan and the only way to China is the route to China, known as the Wakhan Corridor. The Wakhan corridor is of great importance to Afghanistan.
As mentioned earlier, Afghanistan has rich mineral resources, and through the extraction and export of these resources, the decadent economy of Afghanistan can be saved.
However, it is obviously not so easy for Afghanistan to establish trade routes with other countries, after all, many countries around Afghanistan have geopolitical risks or war problems.
It is only China that has a relatively stable political situation and strong economic power. To put it simply, there is a risk that Afghanistan will not be able to guarantee the safety of its exports, and that those countries will not have a large demand for imports of mineral resources.
Therefore, the Afghan side naturally wants to set its sights on the mainland and vigorously promote the opening of the Wakhan Corridor.
So will our country agree to the request of the Afghan side to open the Wakhan Corridor and establish a corresponding strategic cooperative relationship with it?
3. China politely refused
Our country has always adhered to a friendly and equal foreign policy, and is also very willing to help those poor countries, provide them with corresponding financial assistance, help them establish industrial markets, and at the trade level, our country will also give these poor countries some corresponding preferential treatment, so as to be able to save their domestic economic development.
Naturally, our country has provided a lot of assistance to Afghanistan. In 2001, China provided economic assistance to Afghanistan without any strings attached, and in 2015~2019, China trained more than 3,000 talents of all kinds for Afghanistan.
However, this time, in the face of the Afghan side's desire to open the Wakhan Corridor, our country cannot blindly agree.
According to relevant media reports, in the process of negotiating with the Afghan side on relevant issues, our country did not immediately agree to the request of the Afghan side, but only said that the Chinese side is currently considering it and will study the feasibility of the project in the follow-up development.
The meaning of these words is very clear, our country did reject the request of the Afghan side in a very tactful way, and of course this is also a result of the consideration of pluralistic factors.
If we only consider the practical significance of the Khan corridor, then the opening of this corridor will certainly have certain benefits for both the mainland and Afghanistan.
Afghanistan can use this corridor to export the corresponding mineral resources, and our country can also meet the relevant needs of the domestic market and promote the development of related industries through the corresponding commodity interaction, but it is obviously inappropriate to open this corridor now.
First of all, on the one hand, our country must take into account the complex situation around the Wakhan Corridor, which may involve the security of the export of related goods.
Not to mention that Afghanistan has been at war for a long time, and there are extremist groups in the surrounding area, even the situation in neighboring Tajikistan and Pakistan is not stable.
The hasty opening of this corridor may pose a certain threat to the mainland's national defense and security.
The second reason is that the northern part of the corridor borders the Kashmir region, which involves some sensitive sovereignty issues.
If this corridor is opened rashly, it may also touch the territorial sovereignty of other countries, which will lead to corresponding disputes and conflicts, and the gains will outweigh the losses.
For the opening of this corridor, our country really needs to consider. It is most reasonable to find a way to help Afghanistan and promote economic and trade exchanges among neighboring countries and avoid sensitive issues.
Of course, it seems that the key point for the Afghan side to save the country's sluggish economy does not seem to be the opening of economic and trade channels.
After years of war, Afghanistan's current domestic infrastructure has been severely damaged and the level of industrialization is not high, and large-scale mining is unrealistic.
Even if the Wakhan Corridor is opened and corresponding trade routes are established with our country and other neighboring countries, it is difficult for the export volume of related goods to meet the expected standards.
brief summary
In order to salvage the country's sluggish economy, representatives of the Afghan side recently visited China and expressed their willingness to promote the opening of the Wakhan Corridor, but China politely declined in consideration of the security issues of commodity trade and the sensitive territorial sovereignty issues involved. This does not mean that our country does not want to help Afghanistan, but because it is indeed inopportune to rush to open the Wakhan Corridor at this time.
What's more, for Afghanistan, the opening of the Wakhan Corridor at this time may not be able to achieve the expected economic benefits.
The issue of communication and links of trade channels is better to be discussed later, and it is the top priority for the Afghan side to take the lead in solving the problems of backward domestic infrastructure and low industrialization.
In the follow-up development, I hope that our country can also find a perfect way in the process of cooperation with Afghanistan, open this mysterious channel connecting China and Afghanistan as soon as possible, achieve closer trade exchanges, and promote interconnection and interoperability between regions
Reference:
Prof. Zheng Jiyong 2024.4.24 "In front of Atta, the Chinese are very euphemistic, it is not the time to open the Wakhan Corridor"
In-depth Financial Commentary 2024.5.8 "Afghanistan tried its best to promote the opening of the Wakhan Corridor, but China politely refused! Why is this happening?