The Afghan Ministry of Public Works has announced that construction of a 50-kilometer road between Afghanistan and China is underway. This road stretches from Pamir Badakhshan to the end of Wakhan in Badakhshan province, which almost reaches the Chinese border. (Map quoted from Yahoo’s image)

 

Badakhshan province in northeastern Afghanistan borders China. The province connects Afghanistan to China's Muslim state of Xinjiang.

 

The Wakhan corridor is a generally uninhabited and mountainous region. The Wakhan County with a population of less than 20,000 people has a common border with China's Xinjiang Province in the east, Tajikistan in the north, and Pakistan in the south.

 

Wakhan corridor is a narrow strip of land in Afghanistan which is about 350 km long and 13 to 65 km wide.According to the Afghan government's plan, the road will form part of the Wakhan Corridor, which is a step towards connecting Afghanistan to the regions.

 

Wakhan is a mountainous region in Badakhshan where traffic was previously impossible in this region. The construction of the Shusha Road will now be used as a crossroads between China and Afghanistan. Over the past 20 years, Afghanistan has tried to create various trade routes and to end its dependence on the Pakistan route and the port of Karachi, by clinching to various options such as using the roads of Iran, the " Lapis lazuli" route, etc. 

 

Afghanistan has repeatedly faced the problem of trading with China through Pakistan. The ups and downs of Afghanistan-Pakistan political relations have also hampered the trade between the two countries. China shares a 93-kilometer border with Afghanistan in the northeastern of the country. But this neighborhood is at a point where communicating through land or rail is not possible.

 

In the meantime, although, the progress of the China-Afghanistan road construction has been announced at 15%, but the Wakhan route is not only a shortcut between China and Afghanistan, (through which raw materials and products of the two countries will be exchanged), it will also contribute significantly to the tourism of the two countries.

 

In fact, Wakhan is one of the most pristine and untouched areas in the world in the east of Badakhshan province. The climatic conditions of this region are different from other regions of Afghanistan and make important transit programs difficult. But certainly the construction of roads can have major benefits for increasing economic and transit cooperation between China and Afghanistan. In addition, the road could facilitate cooperation between the four countries bordering the Wakhan Dalan region (China, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan).

 

Although the revitalization of the area and its historic role as a crossroads requires improving security and clearing the area of ​​drug traffickers and extremist terrorist groups, but along with the establishment of an Afghan Army Special Forces unit in the mountains areas, the road could provide an important opportunity regarding the expansion of military, security and border cooperation between the two countries.

 

In another dimension, the ‘One Road, One Belt’ project has been turned to the center of the foreign policy of China and Pakistan. But the Afghan government is interested in participating in the project.  Meanwhile, the construction of a road in Wakhan could increase China's incentives to invest economically in the Afghan economy and link it to its own projects. Afghanistan is facing a lack of investment and underdeveloped infrastructure. China can gradually increase its presence in Afghanistan, especially through direct land and even rail connections.

 

Farzad Ramezani Bonesh

Senior Researcher and Analyst of International Affairs