Benefit Do China And Russia Derive From Taliban In Afghanistan

The Asian powers are content with the American failure in Afghanistan and look with ambition towards a new geopolitics. These are the benefits that China and Russia derive from the situation in Afghanistan.

The abandonment of US troops after 20 years of occupation and the return to power of the Taliban in Afghanistan could represent a new geopolitical configuration in Asia. China and Russia hope to benefit from this important move and do not hide their satisfaction with what happened.

At the moment, both countries are the only countries that have decided not to close their embassies in Kabul, the Afghan capital, and with the western withdrawal, everything indicates that they will gain influence on the Asian continent.

What Does Russia Get Out Of The Situation In Afghanistan?

The country led by Vladimir Putin has been without military representation in Afghanistan for more than three decades . Her fight against terrorism has been clear these years and, although she labels the Taliban as terrorists, she is open to maintaining a good relationship with them.

Russia would try with this approach, as pointed out by Fernando Arancon, a specialist in geopolitics and director of El Orden Mundial, to prevent Muslim minorities located in Russian territory from obtaining external financing and posing a problem for the country.

In this sense, “what China and Russia are looking for is basically that Afghanistan does not become a refuge for jihadist groups, because both have Muslim minorities in their territory that have given them problems in the past,” explains Arancon, who adds : “They don’t want the Taliban regime to start financing them.”

How Is China Benefiting From Taliban Rule In Afghanistan?

China reaches out to the new Taliban regime. According to the Chinese Foreign Affairs spokesperson, the Asian giant is “prepared to develop good relations and friendly cooperation” with Afghanistan, in addition to “playing a constructive role in the reconstruction and peace” of the country.

Hua Chunying, spokesman for the aforementioned Ministry, assures that his country wants a “smooth transition” in Afghanistan that “keeps out any type of terrorism and criminal act”, also hopes that “Afghans do not suffer a war and can rebuild their land”.

Although it is all about propaganda, China’s economic interests cannot be set aside. In the first place, they would be interested in exploiting the Afghan mineral resources, although for Aranccn “it is unfeasible”, since Afghanistan ” does not have any type of infrastructure to extract them.”

“There has been a lot of talk that minerals are supposed to exist, but it is not very well known in what quantity or for what value,” remarks the geopolitical expert.

Regarding the so-called New Silk Road and the hypothetical benefit that China could achieve with the new situation in Afghanistan, the director of The World Order assures that, far from incorporating this country into its route, the intention of the Asian giant is to avoid that the Taliban regime “destabilizes the Central Asian republics, which are a bit weak” and therefore poses a problem for this ambitious Chinese project.