Thursday, June 11, 2009

Afghanistan Official Asks China To Provide Supply Route For NATO


Wouldn't it be an interesting scenario to see NATO and American supplies travelling through Communist China into Afghanistan so that the Taliban could be defeated? Well, it's not likely to happen but an Afghan official travelling in China has made the request of the Chinese and I guess we'll have to wait and see. It is interesting to see an Afghan official actually asking for this - the concerns up until now have been mainly from the U.S. and NATO forces about how to circumvent the the supply line route through Pakistan that has become too dangerous and unreliable. Here's some of the article from Yahoo News:


Afghanistan's foreign minister has called for China to open up their common border as an alternative supply route to help forces battling Islamic militants, Chinese state media said Thursday.
Rangin Dadfar Spanta, who is on a four-day visit to China, made the call in a speech on Wednesday at a Chinese think tank, the China Daily newspaper said.
"The solution must be comprehensive, regional and international," Spanta said, adding his "personal wish, which is opening the Wakhan Corridor between Afghanistan and China."

The Chinese aren't exactly thrilled about opening up a border but the real reason they are balking at this request, in my view, is that they have their own islamic problems in China and by opening this supply route, not only would they probably face more islamic terror attacks but they are probably paranoid that more of the damn islamists would make their way INTO China.

I've often dreamt about the Chinese taking some action against the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan as the Chinese aren't about to worry about bombing civilians or taking prisoners - it would be a gutting like we haven't seen before, more than likely. Don't get me wrong, I have no love lost for the Chinese but anyone that would lay waste to over 5,000 Taliban in about a week is temporarily aokay with me.


Afghanistan calls for China's help against militants


BEIJING (AFP) – Afghanistan's foreign minister has called for China to open up their common border as an alternative supply route to help forces battling Islamic militants, Chinese state media said Thursday.
Rangin Dadfar Spanta, who is on a four-day visit to China, made the call in a speech on Wednesday at a Chinese think tank, the China Daily newspaper said.
"The solution must be comprehensive, regional and international," Spanta said, adding his "personal wish, which is opening the Wakhan Corridor between Afghanistan and China."
The corridor is a narrow strip of Afghan territory, the eastern end of which leads to a mountainous 76-kilometre (47-mile) border with China.
The idea of using the thin strip of land as a potential alternative route for supplying US and NATO forces battling Muslim extremist groups such as the Taliban in Afghanistan's rugged terrain has been floated before.
However, the paper quoted Chinese experts as saying the call was likely to fall on deaf ears in China, which fiercely resists any moves viewed as compromising its national sovereignty.
China also says it faces a severe threat from Islamist separatists in its Muslim western regions and tightly controls its borders there.

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