Karzai talks security in China
Afghan leader meets Xi and Li over copper mine concerns
BEIJING: Afghan President Hamid Karzai met with Chinese leaders amid security threats in the wartorn nation that have stymied a massive copper mine development by a Chinese consortium.
Karzai met separately with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang yeterday at Beijing’s Great Hall of the people, and the situation at the Aynak mine south of Kabul was expected to have featured prominently in the talks.
“We consider China to be an anchor of stability for this region and the larger world. Afghanistan recognizes China as a neighbour that has always been good to us,” Karzai said after meeting with Li, who said the visit would “inject fresh momentum” into bilateral relations.
Following the meetings, Xi and Karzai presided over the signing of agreements on extradition, technical and economic cooperation, and education.
A consortium led by China MetallurgicalGroupCorp bid US$3bil (RM9.6bil) to develop the mine, promising to also build a power plant, railway and other infrastructure in Afghanistan, whose ravaged economy badly needs the jobs and investment.
Six years later, work has yet to start, largely because of Taliban insurgent activity in the surrounding Logar province. The consortium is now seeking to renegotiate the contract.
In an indication of the concern over the mining project, Afghan Minister of Mines and Petroleum WahidullahShahrani travelledahead of Karzai for talks.
Earlier in the week, Karzai’s spokesman said that the Afghan government was aware of the Chinese security concerns.
“This year there were three rocket attacks on Aynak and we believe that the security was not sufficient and it was the reason the Chinese company stopped its work,” spokesman Aimal Faizi said. “The Afghan government is seriously committed to providing security in Logar province.”
Aynak, also known as Mes Aynak, is believed to hold the world’s second-largest copper deposit, estimated at six million tonnes, but lies along a transit route for insurgents moving from safe havens in Pakistan.
MCC won the 30-year lease in 2007 in a bidding process marred by allegations of bribery and government interference. Since then, only a workers’ compound has been constructed, although that was abandoned after being hit by rocket attacks last year.
The development is further complicated by archaeological work being conducted on Buddhist ruins at the site, which had been a major spiritual centre along the ancient Silk Road by which Buddhism was transmitted to China.
The consortium wants to cut or reduce its contract commitments, including infrastructure development, an US$800mil (RM2.4bil) bonus to be paid to the government, and its promised royalty rate of 19.5%, according to Afghan reports.
Li Weijian, a Middle East expert at the Shanghai Institute of Foreign Studies, said that conditions are always risky for companies entering countries with civil wars.
“For Chinese companies who longed to go abroad, few of them in the past did a thorough evaluation on the security situation of the target countries, but now many of them are closely following the progress of what has happened in countries such as Syria and Afghanistan,” Li said.
He said it would be “normal” now for Chinese companies to take a wait-and-see attitude on investing in Afghanistan while the security situation is unclear amid the pullout of the US troops.
Calls to the company’s Beijing headquarters yesterday rang unanswered or were picked up by people who immediately hung up. — AP