An Iranian delegation will travel to Afghanistan’s Herat next week for talks with the Taliban about the completion of a new phase of the railroad connecting the two neighbors. Head of the foreign relations of Herat Province, Maulvi Sher Ahmad Ammar, has announced that the Iranian delegation will visit the province next week for talks about various topics, including the […]

The Taliban’s first stint in power from 1996–2001 was an unqualified tragedy for Afghanistan and the rest of the world. It saw thousands of people dead, widespread destruction, and graphic scenes of violence before the ushering in of the first ‘forever’ war of this century. Will their return bring more tragedy or is it a mere farce? In the 1990s, […]

While the United States is adapting to the challenges of a multipolar world and a global geopolitical recalibration, the People’s Republic of China is employing its geo-economic tools to identify power vacuums in the international landscape and to fill the void of American leadership. The combination of former President Donald Trump’s inward-looking foreign policy and President Joseph Biden’s emphasis on […]

The Taliban regained control of Afghanistan after a costly 20-year war with the United States and the collapse of the Afghan government in August. Now they are facing a myriad of problems including a crushing and growing humanitarian crisis as the international aid that the country is reliant upon has dried up. But their biggest crisis arguably is in the […]

In today’s environment of growing US-China competition, America’s allies are increasingly faced with a series of what international relations authority Dr. Victor Cha calls “binary choices” between the two powers. “Open competition in relations between the United States and China has dramatically changed the environment in which the US must operate,” Cha said at a recent East-West Center webinar titled […]

Following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan at the end of August, the only semblance of government remaining there is the Taliban. But the Taliban are not partners in defeating terrorism there, the commander of U.S. Special Operations Command said. “I don’t see them as a partner — I’ll just be frank,” Army Gen. Richard D. Clarke, commander of U.S. Special […]

The past year has witnessed a spate of reports about Chinese ‘model villages’ coming up in disputed areas of its Himalayan border with India and Bhutan. In January 2021, NDTV had reported a Chinese village had come up on the banks of the Tsari Chu river in the Longju region, the site of the first Sino-Indian clashes in 1959. A […]

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will strengthen cooperation with China to provide humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, especially in the health sector, said Pierre Kraehenbuehl, head of the ICRC’s Regional Delegation for East Asia, Reuters reported. This comes amid a growing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan on the back of economic sanctions. Kraehenbuehl said about 47 percent of the […]

Officials representing several Chinese companies are in Afghanistan to conduct on-site inspections of potential lithium projects, Reuters reported. Citing China’s Global Times, Reuters reported that representatives of five companies obtained special visas, arriving in Afghanistan in early November, via the China Arab Economic and Trade Promotion Committee in Kabul and Afghanistan’s mining ministry. Ganfeng Lithium, China’s biggest lithium producer, told […]

Takashi Okada, Japan’s ambassador to Afghanistan, says his country has decided to reopen its embassy in Kabul after the new government ensured Tokyo about its security. Enamullah Samangani, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s deputy spokesman said in a tweet that Takashi Okada raised the issue yesterday during a meeting with Abdul Kabir, the IEA’s political deputy prime minister in Kabul. […]