Afghanistan’s new road to China ends at a closed border

Taliban government hopes its Wakhan Corridor road will open new trade routes and reduce reliance on Pakistan, but Beijing remains wary. At an altitude of nearly 4,900 metres, at the Wakhjir Pass, Afghanistan ends and China begins. Snow closes the pass for at least five months of the year, and people cross it only sporadically in the months when it is passable.

There is no official border crossing here, and yet, on October 4, Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government celebrated the opening of a road leading to the frontier – but crucially not crossing it. Afghanistan’s Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development said the road through the Wakhan Corridor in Badakhshan province had been built in two phases for 365 million afghanis ($5.5m). It is a basic road – an unpaved track covered with gravel.

On the other side of the border, there is no Chinese customs facility, and China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not commented on the road’s opening. For the moment, the road leads to a closed border, with no indication of when Beijing might open it to commercial traffic.