Evolution of Sino-Afghan relations in 21st century: the role of natural resources factor

The article describes Chinese-Afghanistan relationships in the 21st century. On the one hand, it deals with Afghanistan’s natural resources, such as copper and oil. On the other hand, it touches upon the Chinese necessity in these resources to maintain the economic development of the country. The target of the article is to analyse the connection of mineral deposits that Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (IRA) has got and the place of Afghanistan in Chinese political course. Thus, the article consists of three parts dealing with the information on Chinese investments in copper mining, oil deposits, and conclusion. The first part is reported about the Mes Ainak copper deposit. It contains the information about this ancient town itself and some difficulties of mining the deposit dealing with cultural value of the town. It is spoken in details about the way the Chinese company has received Ainak copper mining rights. The second part is spoken in short about the Chinese oil necessity for future technology development. It also describes the Afghanistan’s Amu-Darya oil deposit, in which the Chinese are very interested. However, both the first and the second parts of the article exclude the description of the influence of natural resources on Sino-Afghan relations. Of a special note is that PRC has not only economical interest in developing bilateral relations, it also has political and security ones. In this connection, some facts about the Chinese political course in Afghanistan are given. For example, China wants Afghanistan be the member of Shanghai Cooperation Organization. It is caused by Chinese desire to make strong political ties with IRA. The author comes to the conclusion that despite natural resources shortage the first thing that PRC needs in Afghanistan is its political loyalty. The main reason of political aspect’s dominance in bilateral relations is the geopolitical location of Afghanistan. China wants stable trade and strong economic relations with Iran, Turkey, etc. But for all that, the shortest way to these countries’ markets is the way through Afghanistan. There are two problems that hinder China’s intentions: the lack of infrastructure and terrorism. On the one hand, natural resources mining can partly offset the costs of infrastructure building. On the other hand, PRC’s participation in country equipment (including infrastructure) can make Afghani people’s attitude to China better. Good attitude is one of the key moments to solve the terrorism problem.