The Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi before arriving in New Delhi, took a detour and landed in Kabul on March 24.  Wang was in Islamabad to attend the OIC meeting as a special guest. It was the first visit by a senior Chinese leader after the Taliban takeover of the country. 

Though the details of Wang’s visit were not shared either by the Taliban regime or the Chinese foreign ministry, it is learnt that Wang’s mission to Kabul was to personally invite his Afghan counterpart Maulana Amir Khan Muttaqi for the China hosted foreign ministers of Afghanistan’s neighbours at the month end.  

د چین د بهرنیو چارو وزیر نن په یوه ځانګړي سفر افغانستان ته راغی او د افغانستان د بهرنیو چارو له وزیر محترم متقي صاحب سره یې پر ګڼو مهمو موضوعاتو خبرې وکړي او د اسلامي امارت له نورو مشرانو سره یې مجالس دوام لري. pic.twitter.com/f0R0IHo4RX

— Abdul Qahar Balkhi (@QaharBalkhi) March 24, 2022

The Taliban had refused to send Muttaqi for the OIC summit hosted by Pakistan. Instead, the Taliban asked their head of embassy in Islamabad to attend the conference showing that all is not well in Pakistan-Taliban relations. 

According to one Afghan journalist, in the last meeting of the OIC last December in Islamabad, the foreign minister of the Taliban regime Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi was not “treated” properly as per protocol by the Pakistani authorities. There had been a lot of debate over Muttaqi's participation in the last OIC meet in Islamabad when he was missing in the foreign ministers' group photo while the Afghan seat had remained vacant. Muttaqi was seen sitting in the last row of guests.

This time, the Taliban government has downgraded the level of its participation in the OIC summit by sending an Afghan foreign ministry official rather than its minister.

Earlier, the Chinese ambassador in Kabul, Wang Yu, had told Muttaqi that the Chinese foreign minister Wang was looking forward to meeting him in Islamabad on the sidelines of the OIC conference. 

Though reconstruction of Afghanistan was one of the main agenda of the Pakistan hosted OIC foreign ministers meeting, the Taliban had refused to send their senior minister to attend the meeting. Now, it is said that Wang wanted to ensure Muttaqi’s presence in the upcoming gathering which will be the third dialogue among China, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, since the Taliban took over Afghanistan last August. The first such dialogue was hosted in Islamabad in September immediately after the Taliban seized power from the Ashraf Ghani regime. Iran had hosted the second meeting in late October in Tehran, which was attended by foreign ministers from China, Russia, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.

Analysts say that China has been aggressively pursuing its “interests” in Afghanistan, especially in minerals worth over one trillion. Afghanistan has lithium deposits which are estimated to be worth around $1 trillion which could rival Bolivia’s 21MT.

China’s economic interests in Afghanistan revolve around significant investments in the mining sectors. But persistent political uncertainty and the non-recognition of the Taliban regime have made things difficult for China.

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