Challenges to China’s Growing Interests in Afghanistan
March 26th, 2025
The Diplomat reports on how – while Chinese investment in Afghanistan is rising, particularly in the mining sector – the operations face both local pushback and logistical headaches: In a recent post on X, Amrullah Saleh, the former vice president of Afghanistan, accused Chinese mining companies, “in collaboration with Taliban commanders,” of “rampant plundering and theft” […]
Read more »Getting Out of Afghanistan’s Opium Quagmire
March 22nd, 2025
Via The Diplomat, a look at Afghanistan’s opium economy and drug quagmire: Following a ban on poppy cultivation in Afghanistan imposed by the de facto authorities, the Taliban, in April 2022, opium production plunged by an estimated 95 percent by 2023 from 6,200 tons in 2022 to 333 tons in 2023. Poppy fields were reduced from 233,000 […]
Read more »A Dubai Property Tycoon’s $10 Billion Plan To Save Afghanistan
March 22nd, 2025
Via The National, an article on how – despite the Taliban’s restrictions on women have made the nation a pariah in the global economy – billionaire Mirwais Azizi sees an opening: When The National visited the remote Afghan village of Sia Ab in October 2023, it was a place of carnage. Three weeks earlier, Sia Ab had been near […]
Read more »Afghanistan and Uzbekistan Reach Agreement On Railway Project
February 26th, 2025
Via AMU.tv, a report on a new agreement between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan on a railway project: Taliban’s deputy chief minister, Abdul Ghani Baradar, said on Sunday that they reached an agreement with Uzbekistan on the planned Hairatan-Herat railway project as the Uzbek side will send its team for feasibility studies. Addressing reporters upon returning from […]
Read more »How Afghanistan Can Benefit from China’s Investments
February 26th, 2025
Via The Diplomat, a report on how a strategic relationship with China could end Afghanistan’s isolation through economic cooperation and ensure stability through strategic engagement: Although China has not yet officially recognized the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, it has been steadily deepening ties with them. Its efforts to strengthen diplomatic and economic ties have intensified […]
Read more »A Taliban highway Could Lead To The Future. But It’s Stuck In The Past.
February 2nd, 2025
Via The Washington Post, an article on Taliban plans to turn one of the country’s remotest corners into a global trade hub by linking the Afghan heartland with China: More than three years after the Taliban seized power, Afghanistan remains economically decrepit and politically isolated. But now, the Taliban government has a plan to turn one […]
Read more »Focusing primarily on The New Seven Sisters - the largely state owned petroleum companies from the emerging world that have become key players in the oil & gas industry as identified by Carola Hoyos, Chief Energy Correspondent for The Financial Times - but spanning other nascent opportunities around the globe that may hold potential in the years ahead, Wildcats & Black Sheep is a place for the adventurous to contemplate & evaluate the emerging markets of tomorrow.