Taliban’s Oil Deal Divorce With China Tests Beijing’s Checkbook Diplomacy: Analysts

Taliban’s Oil Deal Divorce With China Tests Beijing’s Checkbook Diplomacy: Analysts

News Analysis Afghanistan’s Taliban regime has torn up the only major resource contract it has signed since retaking power in 2021, accusing its Chinese partner of failing to invest the money, drill the oil wells, or hire the workers it pledged. The move halts a 25-year, $540 million plan to tap crude oil from the Afghan side of the Amu Darya basin—a vast river valley that stretches across Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. A…