China reportedly cuts a deal with the Talibans to drill for oil in Afghanistan.
According to the reports, the Chinese company is aiming to extract oil in the country’s Amu Darya basin and the Talibans agreed to it.
The recent deal cutting was Taliban’s first major energy extractions agreement since they took control of the country in 2021.
In an official statement released by Wang Yu, the Chinese ambassador to Afghanistan during a press conference in Kabul, Yu claimed that “the Amu Darya oil contract is an important project between China and Afghanistan.”
According to the agreement between Taliban and China, the deal was made between the former and China’s Xinjiang Central Asia Petroleum and Gas Company and will be enforced for 25 years.
Not only that, reports also revealed that another Chinese state-owned company is attempting to negotiate with the Taliban to operate a copper mine in eastern Afghanistan.
The agreement comes as China faces an increasing number of security concerns after the country announced the strengthening of its ties to the Taliban which includes an ISIS-K attack that took place last month on a Kabul hotel popular with Chinese businessmen.
China cuts deal with Taliban to extract oil in Afghanistan https://t.co/GVnrofbQ9c— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 10, 2023
According to the report, the ISIS-K attack took the lives of at least three people and injured another 18, including five Chinese nationals. The attack came despite assurances by the Taliban that the security is “guaranteed” for Chinese citizens and other foreigners.
“Some observers believe such attacks on Chinese nationals are likely to continue, pointing out that Afghanistan’s ISIS offshoot has taken issue with China’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims,” Fox News reported.
Yu claimed that “[ISIS-K] has referred to China’s communist godless nature… its oppression of Uyghur Muslims and its relationship with the Afghan Taliban as legitimate reasons to attack its interests in Afghanistan.”
Despite the controversy, the Talibans declared last week that its forces had carried out an operation to combat the ISIS-K group who were responsible for the attack on the hotel.
The group also claimed that eight Islamic State militants were killed in the said operation.
In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital last year, Gordon Chang, a China expert, claimed that an alliance between the two sides would likely continue to grow.
“It looks like the so-called Red-Green alliance is thriving in Central Asia. Evildoers like to work together. So should we be surprised that China’s Communist Party and Afghanistan’s Taliban are cooperating even more closely than before?” Chang claimed.
