The five large Central Asia countries are rich in mineral resources, which will complement China's industrial growth, while benefiting from China's expertise in extraction and processing that will see them growing exponentially in years to come. The recent China-Central Asia Summit attended by Xi, leaves nothing to chance and will leverage on the BRI connectivity. This is what co-operation is all about instead of 'smoke and mirrors' that leads to nothing getting accomplished. What is really called 'mission accomplished' by the USA earlier is just like the situation in Iraq which is all grandstanding and hocus pocus more than anything else.
Anonymous
Things are moving quietly in Central Asia, with China discreetly investing in Afghanistan, a country that Western investors have abandoned altogether.
ReplyDeleteWhat is well known though is Afghanistan is rich in untapped resources like copper, rare earth, lithium and oil. Afghanistan is called the 'Saudi Arabia of Lithium' for its massive reserves of Lithium. All these are resources for China to tap and Afghanistan to benefit from. Estimates put Afghanistan's natural resources at between US$1 trillion and 3 trillion.
And Afghanistan is just one of several Central Asia country with untapped resources. There is a saying that those who control Central Asia will control the world. We have not really started to understand the reason behind that, but what has been seen inside Outer Mongolia is evidence of what is under the ground of Central Asia countries. They may be poor today, but all their wealth is still buried under the ground.