The Taliban will attend China’s Belt and Road Forum next week, a spokesman said on Saturday, underscoring Beijing’s growing official ties with the administration, despite its lack of formal recognition by any government.

Taliban officials and ministers have at times travelled to regional meetings, mostly those focussed on Afghanistan, but the Belt and Road Forum is among the highest-profile multilateral summits it has been invited to attend.

The forum in Beijing on Tuesday and Wednesday marks the 10th anniversary of President Xi Jinping’s ambitious global infrastructure and energy initiative, billed as recreating the ancient Silk Road to boost global trade.

    • TWeaK
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      -11 year ago

      Clearly that’s not what I meant, as explained in another comment.

      • @[email protected]
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        41 year ago

        Maybe I should’ve clarified, I was sincere in asking, because, I stereotypical-assumeed their election would be biased, for sure no women can vote.

        • TWeaK
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          11 year ago

          Ah OK, fair enough, my bad. I think I was a bit terse with my last comment.

          I was basically referring to the fact that the Taliban took over almost completely unopposed. That isn’t to say they were chosen or democratically elected, just that they likely saw them as the better of the bad options available.

          • @[email protected]
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            21 year ago

            Bro, they took over unopposed because they were the only ones there. Most of Afghanistan is a bunch of distinct ethnic people that don’t even usually communicate with each other. They couldn’t even muster up enough people to fight it if they wanted to.