Evolution of Afghanistan from Geostrategic Gate to Strategic Mineral Base.

Byline: Shakhboz Juraev

Afghanistan, former gate to the empires of Shaybanids, Baburids, and Safavids in the XVI century, was once shaped as a buffer between Russian and British empires at the end of the Great Game. However, the country demonstrated its geostrategic importance when the Soviet Union searched for a route to the "warm waters" of the Indian Ocean through Afghan territory. Nevertheless, since the siege of Isfahan in 1722 that ended with the fall of the Safavids empire, Afghanistan became a graveyard for British, Soviet, and American armies. All of the actors, similarly and mostly, headed for the mountainous multiethnic Central Asian state to gain a strategic advantage relative to their opponents.

But, in the XXI century, China and Chinese companies appeared in Afghanistan in the quest for mineral resources, such as lithium. According to the Taliban government's Ministry of Mines and Oil, China's Gochin company plans to invest $10 billion in the lithium resources of Afghanistan in exchange for 120 000 direct and 1 million indirect jobs. Notwithstanding the opportunity for economic revival, Hamayoon Afghan, spokesman for the Ministry, reported that they are not in a hurry for a lithium contract. "We are not in a hurry for the lithium contract, we will not take hurried steps and action in this regard.

We are not obliged to give this contract only to China. It's yet to be known when the contract will be signed and it's not necessary for the contract to be signed only with China. We will consider our own benefits," continued the spokesman. Although the U.S. Defense Department, based on the surveys of American government geologists, estimated the net worth of minerals along with lithium in Afghanistan at $1 trillion a decade ago, the strategic significance of lithium has tripled due to the rise of demand for batteries - the powerhouse for equipment from household commodities to the military technologies.

Revolutionary changes in the automobile industry toward electric energy also doubled the case. Consequently, the Afghan state has once again come to a turning point in its history, whose lithium resources push the country into a prospective future like an oil-rich Gulf state or a struggling economy. Whether prosperity or a more profound crisis awaits Afghanistan depends on several factors that the Taliban government must resolve.

First and foremost, the US sanctions that isolate Kabul's foreign trade must be addressed. As long as...