Observers said the Taliban’s hopes that the completed project will become a link to China’s vast network are unlikely to be shared by Beijing.
At this stage, China has no customs facilities in the area – where Afghanistan meets the autonomous Chinese region of Xinjiang – and has said nothing to suggest it intends to add a formal crossing point.
Currently, only Chinese border guards patrol the Wakhjir Pass at the eastern end of the Wakhan Corridor, where the road is understood to be located.
The project – priced at more than 3.7 million afghanis (US$5.07 million) – was conceived by the US-backed former government as a way to attract Chinese investment in the country’s untapped mining resources.
Construction began in May 2021 on the 50km (31-mile) Little Pamir Road in Badakhshan province but was soon suspended. Three months later, the Taliban retook control of the country.
The 5 metre-wide road was completed around January 15, according to Mohammad Ayub Khalid, the Taliban governor of Badakhshan, in an interview with the Taliban-controlled Bakhtar News Agency. Asphalting would start “in the near future”, he said.
While Khalid gave no details of the road’s location, local travel agency manager Azim Ziahee said it reached the Chinese border via the Wakhjir Pass at the eastern end of the Wakhan Corridor – a barely accessible strip of land in the Pamir mountain range.
The former government had hopes that the road would link up with China’s vast network and boost commerce, imports and exports as well as cross-border transit.
