In Geopolitics Today - Wednesday, January 12th
In Geopolitics Today - Wednesday, January 12th
Taliban Government Requests the Return of Aircraft, China’s Future Engagement with Latin America and the Caribbean, Syria Joins China’s Belt and Road Initiative
Taliban Government Requests the Return of Aircraft
The Taliban has requested that officials in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan must facilitate the return of all military aircraft moved from Afghanistan as US-led forces withdrew. Taliban Defence Minister Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid has said that the Taliban demands that all military planes and helicopters used to leave Afghanistan — US-made aircraft which had been used by the previous government — must be returned.
Before the Taliban’s takeover, the Afghan Air Force (AAF) reportedly had 131 operable aircraft, with a US watchdog stating that about 25 per cent of these aircraft were flown to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan by US-trained Afghan pilots. Another 80 aircraft are said to have been rendered unusable as the Taliban advanced prior to the departure of the last coalition forces. The US spent billions of dollars to train and equip the Afghan Air Force, and US forces made sure to cripple the ability of the Taliban to wield the more sophisticated weaponry left behind.
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China’s Future Engagement with Latin America and the Caribbean
China’s economic and political ties with countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have grown significantly over the last decade. Beijing describes its growing relationship with these regions as one focused on trade and investment, agriculture, energy, infrastructure, manufacturing, and technological innovation. Now, China has agreed a joint plan for relations over the next two years with other members of the China-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).
The latest edition of the CELAC Joint Action Plan (2022-2024) reinforces Beijing’s intentions to expand its relations with Latin America and the Caribbean across a broad range of economic sectors, with a particular emphasis on infrastructure via China-provided financing vehicles, and a broad deepening of China’s involvement in an array of strategic technology sectors with countries that make up the CELAC. China’s growing importance to these regions as a purchaser of exports and a provider of loans and investment cannot be understated at a time when investment from elsewhere seems difficult to come by. The latest CELAC document is a clear signal that Beijing sees CELAC as a vehicle for multilateral engagement with the Western Hemisphere by gradually strengthening CELAC as a regional institution.
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Syria Joins China’s Belt and Road Initiative
Syria has joined a major Chinese trade and development initiative. Fadi al-Khalil, the head of Syria’s Planning and International Cooperation Commission, signed a memorandum of understanding with China’s ambassador to Syria Feng Biao, which makes Syria the 143rd country to join Beijing’s ambitious initiative. Syria joins several other countries in the Middle East which have signed up to the initiative, including major regional players Saudi Arabia, Iran and Turkey.
Syria and China enjoy close relations. Last week, China delivered a shipment of COVID-19 vaccines to Syria, and their friendship also increasingly extends into economic cooperation. To Damascus, investment from China promises to be a lifeline in Syria’s reconstruction process, with infrastructure across the country largely destroyed over the course of the conflict there. And another country joining the Belt and Road Initiative is also good news for Beijing, with Chinese President Xi Jinping making the Initiative a major policy goal of his premiership. Xi seeks to create economic connections over land and sea between China and the world by supporting Chinese firms and financial institutions in funding roads, ports, internet cables and other infrastructure.
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