ISLAMABAD

Afghanistan has decided to join the multi-billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which will help the landlocked country to become a center of trade and attract investment, a senior Afghan official said on Tuesday.

Hafiz Zia Ahmad, deputy spokesman of the interim Foreign Ministry, said the decision to join the mega infrastructure project is part of the Taliban administration's commitment to bring foreign investment to the war-torn country.

"CPEC will help us to become part of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and bring different projects in energy, railway and other sectors to Afghanistan," Ahmad said in a video statement shared by Ariana News, a local television channel.

Last week, Afghanistan’s acting foreign and commerce ministers visited Islamabad to attend the 5th China-Afghanistan-Pakistan Foreign Ministers' Dialogue.

According to a statement issued after the meeting, the "three sides reaffirmed their resolve to fully harness Afghanistan’s potential as a hub for regional connectivity."

They reaffirmed commitment to further the trilateral cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and to jointly extend CPEC to Afghanistan, it said.

CPEC, part of Beijing's BRI, is a multibillion-dollar economic and infrastructural developmental arrangement between Pakistan and China.

There have been discussions to include Taliban-led Afghanistan in the infrastructure project, and the administration has also resolved to make the country a transit hub between Central and South Asia.

Taliban came to power after the withdrawal of US-led NATO forces from Afghanistan in August 2021.