Saragarhi is a small village in the Kohat border district, on the Samana Range in the North-West Frontier Province of British India, which is now part of Pakistan. The Battle of Saragarhi, which took place on September 12, 1897, was a significant last-stand engagement between the British Indian Empire and Afghan tribesmen in the buildup to the Tirah Campaign. Tirah, […]

On 21 August 2024, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s (IEA) envoy to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) formally presented his credentials to Abu Dhabi. Badruddin Haqqani was appointed as the Taliban’s envoy to the UAE in October 2023 and became the second Taliban diplomat to be formally accepted by a country. In January, the Chinese President accredited its Taliban envoy […]

The U.S. State Department on September 12 imposed sanctions on a Chinese research institute and several companies it said have been involved in supplying Pakistan’s ballistic missile program. The Beijing Research Institute of Automation for Machine Building Industry worked with Pakistan to procure equipment for testing rocket motors for the Shaheen-3 and Ababeel systems and potentially for larger systems, the […]

The US and the EU have both recently announced punitive tariffs on electric vehicles (EVs) and other clean energy equipment imports from China. Canada is set to follow suit. The West is clearly determined to challenge China’s domination in clean energy by all possible means. This action-reaction cycle involves China taking a particular decision, which then triggers a response by […]

The recently concluded Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) provided a revealing glimpse into the current state of the Africa-China relationship. On the one hand, the official imagery and language of the summit emphasized constancy — a vision of a stable South-South relationship stretching from the past into the future. On the other hand, the summit also projected a relationship that […]

The July 2024 Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in in Astana, Kazakhstan provided China with another platform to highlight its vision for global governance and security. While the SCO has expanded to include states beyond Central Asia, the organization’s focus on fighting terrorism, separatism and extremism — the so-called “three evils” — is particularly relevant for China in Central Asia, […]

KEY TAKEAWAYS Last week, China welcomed more than 50 African leaders to Beijing for the ninth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which has met every three years since 2000 to coordinate economic and political relations. FOCAC is China’s main platform for Belt and Road-affiliated projects and Chinese plans for infrastructure development have generally dominated the action plans that come out […]

The TAPI pipeline is a large-scale project that envisions the transportation of natural gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan and Pakistan to India. Construction of the Serhetabat-Herat section of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project was officially inaugurated on Wednesday in Turkmenistan. Attending a ceremonial opening event in Turkmenistan was Afghanistan’s Prime Minister Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund along with Chairman of […]

Now that the U.S.-led punitive expedition to Afghanistan has ended, regional trade patterns are returning to normal, as in pre-Soviet Union normal, enhanced by China’s Belt and Road Initiative and local efforts, like the Uzbekistan-Pakistan-Afghanistan (UAP) Railway Project. In August, the government of Uzbekistan announced the opening of the Termez International Trade Center, in the border town of Termez, the […]

Afghanistan, long regarded as a battlefield of geopolitical interests and regional conflicts, has taken on a more sinister identity in recent years: a hub for the training and indoctrination of suicide bombers. The rise of extremist ideologies and the influence of militant groups within the country have made Afghanistan a breeding ground for individuals willing to sacrifice their lives for […]