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China and Pakistan have agreed to extend the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) of the Belt and Road Initiative to Afghanistan.
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and his Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto Zardari pledged to work together on Afghanistan’s reconstruction process, including taking the CPEC to Afghanistan, Pakistan’s foreign affairs ministry said in a statement.
In January 2023, Bloomberg reported that the Taliban-led administration signed its first global oil production contract from the northern Amu Darya basin with China National Petroleum Corporation’s subsidiary.
In April 2023, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Mines and Petroleum said a Chinese company Gochin expressed interest in investing $10 billion in the country’s lithium deposits.
During their meeting in Islamabad, the two ministers reiterated the key significance of ML-1 project under the CPEC framework and agreed to advance its earliest implementation. The project involves up-gradation and doubling of Main Line-1 (ML-1) from Karachi to Peshawar and Taxila to Havelian, a total distance of 1,733 km. They also agreed to actively advance the Karachi Circular Railway alongside key areas of cooperation including, inter alia, agriculture, science and technology, IT, and renewable energy.
The two sides reviewed the progress of various projects at Gwadar, including the Friendship Hospital and New Gwadar International Airport, the statement noted.
(Writing by P Deol; Editing by Anoop Menon)
