Day: February 20, 2024

By Shailendra Updhayay

The Taliban have advertised their efforts towards infrastructure development over the last two years, since taking over power in August 2021. The Taliban Deputy Minister of Economy Abdul Latif Nazari stated in August 2023 that “overall 3575 development projects of $1.9 billion have been launched in the field of infrastructure, health, energy and transportation”.1 Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid stated that funding for these developmental projects in 2023 was more than the previous year.2

Regional connectivity projects such as the Khaf–Herat Railway Project, a connectivity link between Afghanistan and Iran, are touted to be ready for operation, as per the spokesperson of Afghanistan Railway Authority in December 2023.3 The Ministry of Mines and Petroleum in March 2023 stated that they were genuinely interested in the Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India (TAPI) project as it will create direct or indirect employment and will help in energy production. Spokesperson Mujahid noted that several meetings were held with the countries involved in the project, to help take it forward.4 TAPI was on the agenda when the acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi along with the Minister for Mines and Petroleum met Turkmenistan Foreign Minister Rasit Meredow on 17 December 2023.5

Another regional connectivity project, the Trans-Afghanistan railway project, was signed in February 2021 between Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan, with the project expected to cost $5 billion, prior to the Taliban taking over power. The Taliban government are now trying to secure funding for the project from Qatar or the UAE.6

As for major domestic projects, the 285-km long Qosh Tapa Canal Project aims to convert 550,000 hectares of desert into farmland by diverting 20 per cent water from the Amu Darya River. This project is being built in the Kaldar District of northern Balkh Province. On 11 October 2023, Taliban Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Abdul Ghani Baradar inaugurated the second phase of this project. Officials of the Islamic Emirate have assured that they will address concerns, if any, of regional countries such as Uzbekistan, who had expressed apprehension about the project.7 The Deputy Minister of Water and Energy, Mujib Rahman Akhundzada, stated that a plan to build a hydroelectric dam on the Kunar River was not being implemented immediately though due to its high cost. It is envisaged that the dam will irrigate one and a half lakh acres of agricultural land and produce 45 megawatts of electricity.8

Apart from these mega projects that are being constructed or being planned, the Taliban regime has announced many road construction projects.9 As per the Taliban-run public works ministry, 90 maintenance projects have already been completed in 2023 and it plans to initiate 110 developmental projects, which include 30 bridge piers, 1500 check bridge piers, Kabul–Kandahar Highway, Afghan Ring Road and the reconstruction of the Salang Highway.10 Afghanistan electricity company, Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS) has also developed a five-year strategic plan to develop 710 MW of renewable energy, with funding from internal sources. On 26 July 2023, DABS released annual report on major achievements in 2022 noting that electricity line from Kajaki to Kandahar, which is 170-km long, has been completed.11

Economic Realities

The Taliban’s focus on infrastructure development though is up against the hard realities of a difficult economic situation. After the Taliban took over power in August 2021, the country witnessed a major decline in its economy. The United States froze the Afghan Central Bank reserves of about $7 billion and the European Union and the World Bank stopped disbursing aid. Sanctions were also imposed. The World Bank notes that Afghanistan’s services sector, which contributes 45 per cent of the country’s GDP, shrank by 6.5 per cent in 2022, following a 30 per cent drop in 2021. The agriculture sector which contributes 36 per cent of GDP declined by 6.6 per cent while the industrial sector also saw a contraction of 5.7 per cent in 2022.12

According to the Afghanistan Economic Monitor released by the World Bank, Afghanistan government collected a total revenue of $2.3 billion for the initial ten months of 2023-2024.13 Such finances will not be sufficient, therefore, to implement the projects they have planned and are in progress. The role of funding and expertise from regional countries like China and India, therefore, assumes significance. 

Chinese Investments

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s surprise visit to Afghanistan on 24 March 2022 and invitation extended to the Taliban to attend the Third Foreign Ministers’ Meeting held on 30–31 March 2022 in Tunxi in East China’s Anhui Province was proof of China’s proactive stance in its engagement with the Taliban. China had earlier made investments in the Aynak copper mine. At the Fourth Pakistan–China Foreign Ministers’ Strategic Dialogue held in Islamabad on 6 May 2023, it announced that it wanted to extend the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to Afghanistan. 

The Taliban have shown interest in CPEC and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with the hope that it would strengthen the Afghan economy and bring in investments. In October 2023, Taliban Commerce Minister Haji Nooruddin Azizi said: “China, which invests all over the world, should also invest in Afghanistan… we have everything they need, such as lithium, copper and iron”.14

In January 2023, China National Petroleum Corporation signed an agreement with the Taliban to invest $150 million. In the coming three years, it will invest $540 million dollars to extract oil from the Amu Darya basin and develop an oil reserve in the country’s northern Sar-e Pul Province.15

Despite China’s bid to extend CPEC to Afghanistan, the Wakhan corridor continues to raise China’s angst given concerns about possible entry of Uyghur terrorists through this route.16 In September 2023, the Taliban’s Ambassador to China, Mohammad Sadiq, mentioned that he had detailed discussions with Chinese authorities regarding the commencement of traffic through the Wakhan Corridor.17 Opening of this corridor would strengthen trade links between the two countries if the Taliban manages to address the Chinese concerns.

India’s Stakes

India is still the largest regional donor for Afghanistan and fifth largest in the world with an investment of $3.4 billion in Afghan reconstruction, development and humanitarian efforts. On 14 August 2022, the Taliban requested India to complete its pending projects and even requested to train their security personnel.18 This came close on the heels of India announcing its presence in Afghanistan under Technical Mission in June 2022.19

In December 2022, Taliban’s Minister for Urban Development, Hamdullah Nomani, interacted with members of the Indian technical team in Kabul where he talked about renewal of Indian projects, invited investment in New Kabul Town, raised visa issues and urged more scholarships for Afghan students. After this interaction, many senior diplomats met with Taliban officials in West Asian countries. 

Recently, the Indian Embassy in UAE invited Afghan envoy Badruddin Haqqani for Republic day celebrations at Abu Dhabi. Indian delegations have participated in regional cooperation initiative meeting organised by Taliban in Kabul on 29 January 2024. The Ministry of External Affairs on 1 February 2024 reiterated India’s relation with the Afghan people and acknowledged that Indian diplomats have been engaging the Taliban in “various formats”.20 

India’s efforts have also been acknowledged by the Taliban. Hafiz Zia Ahmed, the Deputy spokesperson of Foreign Ministry, recently shared the statement attributed to an Indian representative on social media platform X which noted that:

“India actively takes part in international and regional initiatives regarding Afghanistan, and supports every effort leading to the stability and the development of Afghanistan”21

Conclusion

The Taliban are likely to make more efforts in the coming future aimed at cultivating other countries for investments to boost the Afghan economy. India should continue to calibrate its moves towards the Taliban government to ensure that its humanitarian and possible developmental re-engagement promote an environment of trust and understanding and help the Afghan population benefit from its intervention.

Views expressed are of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Manohar Parrrikar IDSA or of the Government of India.

About the author: Mr Shailendra Updhayay, Intern, South Asia Centre at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA), New Delhi.

Source: This article was published at Manohar Parrrikar IDSA

• 1.  Habib Rahman Qooyash “Ministry of Economy: Over 3500 Projects Implemented in Last Year”, Tolo News, 19 August 2023.
• 2.Ibid.
• 3.Habib Rehman Qooyash, “Ara: Khaf-Herat Railway to Carry Goods in Near Future”, Tolo News, 17 December 2023.
• 4.“Government Fully Prepared to Start Work on TAPI”, The Afghanistan Official Voice, Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, 7 March 2023.
• 5.“TAPI Project to Begin Soon: Muttaqi”, Tolo News, 17 December 2023.
• 6.“Infrastructure Projects to Start in 2024: Islamic Emirate”, Tolo News, 6 January 2024.
• 7.Zikrullah Yaazdani, “Work on Second Phase of Qosh Tepa Canal Starts”, Tolo News, 11 October 2023.
• 8.Fidel Rahmati, “Afghanistan’s Kunar River Dam Proposal Sparks Controversy; Water Management Dilemma for Pakistan and Taliban”, Khama Press News Agency, 20 December 2023.
• 9.Shabnam Amini, “6 Road Projects in Capital to Begin: Kabul Municipality”, Tolo News, 11 January 2024.
• 10.  Bibi Amina Hakimi, “Over 110 Projects Launched in Current Solar Year: Public Works Ministry”, Tolo News, 13 January 2024.
• 11.“Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat Develops Five Year Strategic Plan for Renewable Energy”, Alemarah, 26 July 2023.
• 12.“Afghanistan Contracted Economy Faces Uncertainity, Afghan Families Are Struggling”, The World Bank, 3 October 2023.
• 13.“Afghanistan Economic Monitor”, The World Bank, 21 January, 2024, p. 3.
• 14.Joe Cash, “Taliban Says Plans to Formally Join China’s Belt and Road Initiative”, Reuters, 19 October 2023.
• 15.  Shanthie Mariet D’Souza, “China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the Taliban’s Economic Dreams”, The Diplomat, 19 October 2023.
• 16.Zhao Ziwen, “Why China is Wary of Opening up Afghanistan’s New Road to Xinjiang”, South China Morning Post, 26 January 2024.
• 17.“Wakhan Corridor Officially Connects Afghanistan to China: Taliban”, Khaama Press, 16 January 2024.
• 18.Nirupama Subramanian, “Taliban: Asked India to Complete its Development Projects in Afghanistan”, The Indian Express, 16 August 2022.
• 19.Murali Krishnan, “India: What Next After Afghan Embassy Closure?” DW, 12 October 2023.
• 20.Kallol Bhattacherjee, “India Engaging The Taliban In ‘Various Formats’ Says MEA Spokesperson”, The Hindu, 1 February 2024.
• 21.Ranjit Bhushan, “India-Taliban Thaw on Afghanistan: What Really is Happening?” The Hindustan Times, 5 February 2024.

By Ani Avetisyan 

(Eurasianet) — On February 15, two days after he resigned his post, former Armenian Economy Minister Vahan Kerobyan was charged with abuse of office. The following day a court ordered him placed under house arrest.

Armenia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement that ministry officials, including Kerobyan, disqualified a private entity from a procurement tender to ensure that it was won by another bidder that charged a much higher sum. They allegedly rigged the procurement to award the Armenian branch of Synergy International a $1 million contract. The possible motivation behind Kerobyan’s action was not mentioned. 

Kerobyan’s arrest followed the detention of his deputy and six other officials related to the same corruption scandal. Deputy Minister Ani Ispiryan was dismissed and detained on 31 January. Law enforcement then raided the houses of over 15 people, ultimately arresting six other employees of the ministry.  

Kerobyan criticized the arrests in a cabinet meeting last week, saying that the criminal proceedings “paralyzed” the work of the ministry. 

In his last Facebook post before being charged, Kerobyan stated he had disagreements with the country’s leader, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. 

“I have wanted to leave this job many times, but I have committed myself to maximizing the value of my service to my country,” Kerobyan wrote. 

In later remarks to journalists, he acknowledged that the prime minister’s chief of staff, Arayik Harutyunyan, told him to resign as “they were not happy” with his work. 

Kerobyan has dismissed the charges against him but also said that he does not believe that the case was politically motivated.

Kerobyan was appointed as minister of economy in 2020, following Armenia’s defeat against Azerbaijan in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War. Before joining the Pashinyan government, he ran a food delivery company. 

Several employees, including the director of Synergy International’s Armenian branch, Ashot Hovhanesian were put in pre-trial detention. Following a backlash from the country’s tech community, MPs from the ruling Civil Contract party members initiated a motion in parliament to appeal to the court asking to release Hovhanesian and his colleagues. One of those arrested is the sister-in-law of Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan.

Some in Armenia have speculated that Pashinyan wanted to sacrifice some of his team members to boost his declining popularity. 

Pashinyan’s government came to power through a street protest movement in 2018. It declared the fight against corruption a top priority. Pashinyan has repeatedly vowed that his own team members would not be spared if they were found to be engaged in wrongdoing. 

Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index for Armenia has improved significantly since then. In 2023 it ranked 63rd out of 180 countries, compared with 105th five years earlier. 

Several members of Pashinyan’s government or his Civil Contract party have been charged or arrested in the past several years. The country’s former deputy health minister Gevorg Simonyan was charged for allegedly embezzling Covid relief money in 2023. Former Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan was arrested for alleged fraud in weapons procurement before and during the 2020 Karabakh War. A former deputy mayor of Yerevan, Stepan Machyan, was also charged with tender-related embezzlement in 2023.

At the same time, however, Pashinyan’s team dismisses the accusations and claims about Armenian parliamentary speaker Alen Simonyan’s brother’s successes in government tenders, as well as Simonyan’s friend’s links to a luxury real estate project. 

By Will Ferrell

George Orwell wrote, “The slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.” More colorfully and in a similar vein, it has been said that blurry words carry deplorable thinking the way mosquitoes carry malaria.

It behooves us all to pay attention when people use words deviously or manipulatively not to inform but to conceal.

How can people who are intolerant and authoritarian at every turn call themselves “liberal”? How can people wanting to regress the United States to the collectivism of the past—as socialism and fascism both devolve to feudalism over time—call themselves “progressives”?

How can one honestly use the term “affirmative action,” which is reverse racial discrimination, when discriminating on the basis of race is the definition of racism? There is nothing affirmative about being discriminated against simply because you are a white or Asian male.

“Diversity” means that only those infected by the woke mind virus need apply so that diversity equates to ideological conformity. “Equity” necessarily means inequality, with some people given privilege at the expense of everyone else. “Inclusion” means everyone who doesn’t bow to the political correctness dogma or possess some forever-victimhood privilege will be excluded.

Social justice essentially means “not justice.” Socializing justice demands injustice to individuals, to the white and Asian men whose careers have been foreclosed as college admissions, jobs, and promotions have been given to less-qualified people with a preferred race or sex. Every woman in East Germany being raped by Russian soldiers at the close of World War II—that was the principle of social justice being applied by the powerful victors at that moment.

“Gender-affirming care” means endorsing a feeling, very possibly induced by propaganda, that runs counter to every identifiable physical scientific fact concerning sex. Castration of a minor is the opposite of care.

For many decades, dictionaries defined “vaccine” as a preparation of killed or attenuated organisms administered to produce immunity to a particular disease. The emergency-use mRNA injection was neither that type of preparation nor did it provide any immunity, yet it was called a vaccine by all those pushing it on us. Someone playing with the meaning of a word should be a red flag that you are not dealing with someone of honest persuasion.

And “cases.” What did that word mean? Were you sick with covid, or had you just tested positive with the worthless polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests? Nobody ever knew, and—purposefully—none in the pay of the ruling class ever asked.

Harvard just contrived the euphemistic phrase “duplicative language” to obscure the reality of plagiarism being intellectual theft.

If someone uses the word “misinformation,” it is a pretty good tell that they are working for a censoring propagandist. Incorrect information in a free society is corrected by information that persuasively counters it, not censorship. This is a founding principle of the US republic and has a rather good track record to the extent it has been allowed.

The Trusted News Initiative, for all their “Poison Ivy League“ grads, behaved as if it was oblivious to this history: the media members censored and shadow banned mostly true information about the virus, the “vax,” and other things—often information from extremely reputable experts in the relevant subject. The most salient feature of the Trusted News Initiative is that it cannot be trusted.

Similarly, the one thing that does not matter to the Black Lives Matter movement is black lives: Murders of blacks surged in 2020 in the wake of their riots and calls to defund the police. With police diminished in number and unable or afraid to do their jobs, murders of blacks increased 43 percent over the average of the previous ten years! (Historically, 93 percent of blacks have been murdered by other blacks according to the Department of Justice, and this definitely doesn’t matter to Black Lives Matter.)

The dominant marketing department of the ruling class of the US is known as the Democratic Party. The one thing that party is not is democratic.

Witness the shenanigans by which they elevated Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders in 2016. Witness the backroom way that Joe Biden was anointed as their nominee (at Congressman Jim Clyburn’s signal in South Carolina) in 2020. The Democratic Party’s undemocratic ways are further exhibited by the way their droves of lawyers maneuvered throughout the country to overturn all manner of election law (established by democratically elected legislatures) so that Biden could be elected from his basement with almost forty-seven million mail-in ballots.

Presently, their legal persecution of the candidate for president who is leading Biden in the polls and their chicanery to prevent voters from having the right to vote for this presidential candidate are both exceedingly undemocratic. Democratic congressmen have also literally sought to prevent 126 Republican congressmen from being allowed to appear on the ballot for reelection because of their thoughts surrounding January 6 and 2020 election irregularities. To describe Democrats as “democratic” is 1984 doublespeak.

The other marketing department for the US ruling class, the Republican Party, doesn’t have deceit built into its name. However, a party campaigning vociferously for cutting government spending for the last fifty years while virtually never cutting any spending certainly brings to mind the quip, “Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue.”

The Republican Party does make a home for the handful of members who genuinely value individual freedom and limited government, but it never allows them into the leadership. Allowing a few virtuous into the party creates the illusion that the party is something other than controlled opposition—as they join the Democrats in loving US taxpayer involvement in every single war anywhere on the planet.

The only thing the putative “conservative” party conserves is the ruling class.

As best as you can, beware those using squirrelly words, trying to usher us deeper into an Orwellian dystopia.

• About the author: Will Ferrell of North Carolina is the author of the historical novel The Secrets of Sterling Shearin: The Noblest Cause. In case you were wondering, his second cousin is the comedic actor Will Ferrell.
• Source: This article was published by the Mises Institute

Both Taipei and Beijing have said they will “enforce the law” in the waters between Kinmen island and China’s mainland after last week’s incident that resulted in the deaths of two Chinese men.

Taiwan authorities said on Feb. 14, a Chinese speedboat “trespassed” within 1.1 nautical miles of the eastern coast of the island of Kinmen. The Taiwanese coast guard deployed vessels to expel the boat “in accordance with the law.” 

The Chinese crew “refused to be inspected” and their boat capsized, according to a press release from Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) – the agency in charge of cross-Strait issues. Four people on board fell into the sea, two of them died.

Kinmen is an outlying archipelago less than 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from China’s Fujian province but more than 180 kilometers (112 miles) from Taiwan’s mainland. The island and Fujian’s city of Xiamen are separated by Xiamen Bay.

China Coast Guard spokesperson Gan Yu said on Sunday that China has launched regular law enforcement patrols in the area as part of efforts “to protect fishermen’s lives and property.”

The Fujian branch of the coast guard will “strengthen maritime law enforcement in the relevant waters,” Gan said in a statement.

Before that, a spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Zhu Fenglian condemned the incident which, she said, sparked widespread outrage on the mainland, and severely hurt the feelings of compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

‘Both sides are nervous’

In response to Gan Yu’s announcement, Taipei’s MAC said on Sunday that law enforcement activities by the Taiwanese coast guard “will continue.”

“According to cross-Strait regulations, mainland ships are not allowed to enter Taiwan’s restricted and prohibited waters without permission,” it said in a statement, “In order to safeguard the rights and interests of fishermen, our competent authorities will expel or detain cross-border vessels in accordance with the law.”

The latest developments show that “both sides are nervous,” said a Kinmen resident, military historian Timothy Tsai.

“I’m not a fisherman, so I don’t worry much at the moment yet,” said Tsai, who heads a local military history group.

“But if the tension between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait is escalating further then it will definitely be a concern for everyone.” 

In recent months Kinmen has seen frequent flyovers by Chinese drones, and many believe it could be the first target of a Chinese invasion in the future.

However, Su Tzu-yun, a senior analyst at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research in Taipei, said that in his opinion “this incident will not escalate into a military conflict.” 

“However, it is important to note that China’s systematic approach, through the proximity of merchant ships close to Taiwan’s home island waters and the harassment of fishing boats, indicates that China can still exert pressure on Taiwan,” Su told RFA.

“But Taiwan should not respond alone,” the military analyst said, “Chinese fishing boats have clashed with Korea in the Yellow Sea, with Japan’s Coast Guard in the East China Sea, and with the Philippine Coast Guard in the South China Sea.”

“Even in South America, Chinese fishing vessels have clashed with fishermen and sea captains from various countries,” he noted.

“The international community should collectively protest against Beijing’s threat to global fishery resources.”

Late last year, Congress extended Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and, in doing so, secured “the nation’s warrantless surveillance powers” until April 2024. With that month fast approaching, House Republicans have unveiled a new package to reauthorize those same powers, within limits.

As The Hill reports, the new package “focus[es] on more reforms at the FBI to address misuse of the powerful spy tool,” but the deal does not include requirements for a warrant, which is “deemed a red line for the intelligence community but nonetheless a top priority for privacy advocates in Congress.”

The new measure “would severely limit the number of FBI personnel who can query the database, forcing more oversight from some 550 supervisors or lawyers before agents can tap into the database to gain information on Americans.” The bill aims to “protect members of Congress or other high-profile officials” by requiring consent before a “defensive briefing.”

The FBI will be required to “notify a member of Congress, with some limitation, if they have been queried in the 702 database.” As members of Congress and the public may have noticed, the FBI, tasked with counterintelligence, has become a law unto itself.

Last August, an FBI squad gunned down Craig Robertson, a 75-year-old woodworker, for things he had allegedly posted online. The killing was reportedly under review by the FBI’s Inspection Division, but as of this writing there has been no investigation by Congress. As members may have noted, the FBI now operates along partisan lines.

As Newsweek headlined last Oct. 4, “Donald Trump Followers Targeted by FBI as 2024 Election Nears.” According to the report, the FBI has “quietly created a new category of extremists that it seeks to track and counter: Donald Trump’s army of MAGA followers.”

A “senior FBI official” told Newsweek: “We cannot and do not investigate ideology. We focus on individuals who commit or intend to commit violence or criminal activity that constitutes a federal crime or poses a threat to national security.” The people have cause to wonder.

The FBI failed to stop the 1993 bomb attack on the World Trade Center, the massive terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001, the terrorist mass murders at Fort Hood in 2009, the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, and terrorist mass murders in San Bernardino in 2015 and Orlando in 2016, with 49 dead. On the other hand, the FBI surveilled and harassed such dangerous criminals as singer Aretha Franklin and actress Jean Seberg.

While assessing the FBI, members of Congress might read Neutering the CIA: Why US Intelligence versus Trump Has Long-Term Consequences. Former CIA analyst John A. Gentry charts a woke agency now deployed against “another serious candidacy by Trump,” with units ready for reactivation “if even a traditional Republican again becomes president.” This from an agency tasked with providing intelligence on foreign adversaries.

As Gentry notes, the entire “Intelligence Community” failed to prevent the attack of Sept. 11, 2001, and for this failure was rewarded with bigger budgets. With the secretive IC now active in domestic politics, massive failures become more likely, with many innocent lives at stake. The CIA, like the FBI, has become a law unto itself.

The real question for federal lawmakers is whether the CIA and FBI are even reformable, and how the people’s representatives might hold them accountable. Instead they seek to prolong surveillance measures that, as critics rightly contend, have no place in a free and democratic society.

Members of Congress get special protections, but so far there’s no word about safeguards against warrantless surveillance for pro-life activists, protesting parents, and devout Catholics—all regarded as dangerous extremists by the current FBI. Journalists, especially those who are critical of the bureau, also have cause for concern. They can take it as a sign that Big Brother is watching, as George Orwell wrote in 1984—or, in the style of Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, here’s still looking at you, kid.

This article was also published in The American Spectator