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Taliban official to attend China’s Belt and Road Forum as Beijing steps up Afghan engagement
- Taliban’s acting minister for commerce and industry, Haji Nooruddin Azizi, will travel to Beijing, ministry spokesman tells Reuters
- Move underscores China’s growing official ties with the Afghan administration, despite its lack of formal recognition by any government
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The Taliban will attend China’s Belt and Road Forum this week, a spokesman for the Islamic group ruling Afghanistan said.
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The move underscores Beijing’s growing official ties with the Afghan administration, despite its lack of formal recognition by any government.
Taliban officials and ministers have at times travelled to regional meetings, mostly those focused on Afghanistan, but the Belt and Road Forum is among the highest-profile multilateral summits the group has been invited to attend.
The two-day forum starting on Tuesday marks the 10th anniversary of President Xi Jinping’s ambitious global infrastructure and energy initiative, billed as recreating the ancient Silk Road to boost global trade.
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China’s Belt and Road, 10 years on
China’s Belt and Road, 10 years on
The Taliban’s acting minister for commerce and industry, Haji Nooruddin Azizi, will travel to Beijing in the coming days, a ministry spokesman told Reuters in a text message.
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“He will attend [the forum] and will invite large investors to Afghanistan,” the spokesman said.
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