The Chinese foreign ministry, in a statement released on Friday, announced that starting from August 1, China will resume granting visas to Afghan nationals and facilitate 98% of Afghan goods to enter China tax-free.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi reportedly made the announcements on Thursday in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, when he met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Taliban, Amir Khan Muttaqi.
Taliban Foreign Minister, Muttaqi, thanked China for the productive measures of cooperation, according to Hafiz Zia Ahmad, the deputy spokesperson for the Taliban’s ministry of foreign affairs, who also released this information on his Twitter handle.
According to Ahmad, the parties also discussed economic and humanitarian issues, where the Chinese side expressed intention and readiness to reduce poppy cultivation in Afghanistan by proposing an alternative to the Afghan farmers.
After the Taliban took control, Afghanistan’s economy collapsed, with the central bank’s foreign reserves blocked, aid from western and other donors discontinued, and US hard currency deliveries stopped.
After NATO forces withdrew from Afghanistan, one of Afghanistan’s eastern neighbors, China, in an effort to fill the gap left by the departure of foreign troops, has sought to engage and cooperate with the Taliban.
However, the Taliban government has not yet received official recognition from China.
