![This photograph taken September 6 along the roadside in Deh Sabz district of Kabul shows an abandoned petrol station. [Wakil Kohsar/AFP]](/cnmi_st/images/2023/01/11/40254-000_32ju23g-739_416.webp)
KABUL -- A deal signed with a company that has ties to the Chinese government to extract oil from northern Afghanistan's Amu Darya basin is illegitimate and exploitative and will not benefit Afghans, analysts say.
The two sides announced the deal at a news conference in Kabul on January 5.
Under the terms of the contract, China's Xinjiang Central Asia Petroleum and Gas Co. will invest up to $150 million a year, which will then increase after three years to $540 million per year for the remainder of the 25-year contract, according to officials.
But Afghan political and economic analysts warn that the deal has fundamental problems and positions Beijing to benefit exponentially while endangering Afghan national interests.
![Chinese Ambassador to Afghanistan Wang Yu speaks during a news conference January 5 in Kabul to announce a Chinese company's contract to extract Afghan oil. [Ahmad Sahel Arman/AFP]](/cnmi_st/images/2023/01/11/40253-000_336j6ny-739_416.webp)
Chinese Ambassador to Afghanistan Wang Yu speaks during a news conference January 5 in Kabul to announce a Chinese company's contract to extract Afghan oil. [Ahmad Sahel Arman/AFP]
"The deal has neither national nor international legitimacy," said Ahmad Saeedi, an Afghan international relations analyst based in Uzbekistan. "Therefore, it is a contract violating international conventions and laws and definitely has no legal basis."
Someday in the future, Afghans could have grounds to "nullify the contract based on international conventions and demand the losses and damages caused to Afghanistan by appealing through the international court", he said.
Undermining Afghanistan's interests
"The Amu Darya deal has legal and technical issues," said London-based economist Darya Khan Baheer.
Kabul presently lacks the standing to conclude agreements that the international community will recognise, he said.
"The contract also has technical issues," he said, citing the lack of relevant experts still in Afghanistan who are qualified to vet the contract and to protect Afghan national interests.
"When a contract of this extensive scale is not drafted and finalised by experts and there is no expert team established to monitor its implementation, it is certain that only the Chinese company -- which is poised to dominate Afghanistan's natural resources and mines -- will reap more and more excessive profits," he said.
"The contract ... is against Afghan laws and procurement methods and in contradiction with the principles of international contracts," said Fahim Chakari, a university professor and procurement specialist based in Turkey.
"Unfortunately, one party to the contract ... Kabul, lacks the capacity to prepare contents for a 25-year contract with large Chinese companies," he said.
Chinese companies "have taken the natural resources of poor countries hostage in various countries from the region to Africa," said Chakari.
"By signing the contract, China will indiscriminately plunder our natural resources."
Economic exploitation
Given the change in Afghanistan since August 2021, "China wants to seize the opportunity to control the region and expand its geo-economic ambition," said Salim Paigir, a political affairs analyst based in Kabul.
"[China] has come up with dozens of proposals and presented them to Afghanistan [with the aim to] control our country's natural resources," he said.
"China has a manipulative and colonialist policy in the region. It aims to economically exploit and politically colonise our country by signing the new deal on extracting Afghanistan's minerals and oil," Paigir said.
"Oil and gas and the natural resources of Afghanistan as a whole are considered our national capital," said Sardar Mohammad, 27, a resident of Kabul with an economics degree.
But this national capital and Afghanistan's national interests are threatened with the signing of the deal with a Chinese company, he said.
"It is more like throwing our wealth into the mouth of a dragon," he added.
"China has never helped Afghans even in the most difficult circumstances," he added. "Unfortunately, it is now eyeing our country's natural resources and trying to loot them in the guise of various contracts."
I don't think a long-term agreement can be made with China, Russians and Iranians because of these ones the world's superpowers are monitoring Afghans and a big problem can be created. Well, short-term contracts can occur. China is not a friendly country, supporting them is like someone who learns to swim and then throws himself on the ground! Russians are greedy, neither can they satisfy themselves nor can they satisfy others! Iran is a nest of terrorist groups, we must protect ourselves from them.
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The second part of my comment: I want America and Western countries to maintain direct relations with Afghans. Never again should they make the mistake of managing Afghanistan through Pakistan and with the help of Pakistan. Americans should remember that China, Russia, and Pakistan were behind the downfall of the republican system in Afghanistan. China and Russia would openly oppose the presence of the United States in the region, but Pakistan was hypocritical. It was supporting the presence of international forces in Afghanistan. Still, it secretly gave hideouts to the leaders of the Taliban, gave them training, and then sent them out to kill Afghan and coalition soldiers and ordinary Afghans. In this regard, it is important to maintain direct communication with every Afghan government, opposition, and individual.
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There is no doubt that any deal with China at this time is to the detriment of Afghanistan. In the current system, there are no legal, mining, or international relations experts in Afghanistan. In addition, I have read Trump's words, quoted by the Taand news website. I bring the news here, and at the end, I write my comment on it: "The former president of the United States of America, Donald Trump, once again criticized the winner of the last election and the ruling president, Joe Biden, in preparation for the presidential elections of this country. He specifically once again referred to the urgent action of withdrawing the American troops from Afghanistan, saying that the war in Afghanistan had been won, but Biden ashamed the United States to the world by withdrawing the troops early. Trump once again continued his previous criticisms and called America's withdrawal from Afghanistan shameless and added that Biden gave Russia the courage to attack Ukraine with this move. Donald Trump called the Taliban's success in Afghanistan the loss of large American weapons as a result of the same action of Biden and said that the Taliban are good fighters, but they felt braver and more successful with American weapons." The words of Trump and some Americans are true that the sudden withdrawal of America from Afghanistan was a mistake. Still, President Biden made it clear in his speech that he does not want to stay in Afghanistan for the sake of China and Russia's developments. Apart from
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I would like to ask if this contract has legal validity. Taliban is an illegitimate government and signing a contract with them does not create any kind of legal obligation. So, how can a country sign a trade agreement with them? It is clear from this that China wants to plunder Afghanistan's resources and deprive Afghanistan of this blessing without considering the legal validity of this agreement. The United Nations and other international organizations and friendly countries should not allow China to rob the Afghan people by using the vacuum of a legitimate government in Afghanistan.
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China is indeed a thief; even China's ally Pakistan is bigger than China. But what is the solution? Afghanistan does not have such cadres to extract the minerals of its country. America has spent 20 years in Afghanistan, but unfortunately, it did not extract a single mine for Afghanistan. Some say that the United States and Britain searched for Afghanistan's minerals in Helmand and other provinces. This seems to be mostly a rumor because no concrete evidence has been released to the media. I say with certainty that we cannot benefit from China. All the profit will go into China's pocket, but I read earlier on the Voice of America Pashto Service website that Afghanistan's passport is the lowest in the list of passports in the world. It has taken last place. Now I am thinking, why? Our country was and still is a friend of the most developed, strongest, most powerful, and most democratic country in the world because we never want the friendship between Afghanistan and America to vanish. When so, then why is the Afghan passport so weak?
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Regarding the oil extraction contract with the Chinese company, it can be said that all the provisions of this contract were for China and not for Afghanistan. The only support the Afghan people had was on the resources of Afghanistan's mines. It is also extracted illegally. A day can come as the people of Afghanistan will say that we Afghans have abundant mines, but there will be no news that all the mines have been sold. Currently, Afghanistan's precious stones' mines are illegally transferred to Pakistan, and the contents of these stone mines reach to the pockets of a few members of the mining mafia. In any other country where China invests, it will realize that the economy of that country has become zero. China spends on the economy of its own country, not on other countries. China has a neutral policy in regional wars. It has not involved itself in the wars of other countries, and it is always thinking about strengthening its economy. China is always looking at the mines of other countries and is trying to get these mines and make its economy strong.
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