Turbaned Afghan officials and hard-hatted Chinese engineers gathered in Afghanistan’s Sar-e-Pul province in 2023 to mark the opening of Chinese-invested oil fields. The fields are located in the Amu Darya River basin, a major Central Asian watershed that includes glacier-capped mountains and vast, arid deserts. At a signing ceremony in Kabul, China’s envoy, Wang Yu, hailed the deal as “an important project” between the two countries. It was the first — and at the time, only — foreign investment in Afghanistan since the Taliban took back power in August 2021. Under the 25-year contract, China pledged to invest $540 million in the first three years. “The contract specifies that the oil will be processed in Afghanistan,” noted Afghanistan’s then-Acting Minister of Mines and Petroleum Shahabuddin Delawar. “We will not allow crude oil to be processed or transported abroad.” But two years later, the deal collapsed amid mutual recriminations — in a saga that sheds light on the often-opaque relationship between Beijing and the Taliban.

Full report : Contract breach or banditry? Inside the collapse of the Taliban’s oil deal with China.