Amid NATO countries' plan to pull-out their combat forces out of Afghanistan by 2014, Afghanistan's neighbors, near neighbors and other regional countries are mulling over increasing their roles in this country. The People's Republic of China that shares a small border with Afghanistan's far northeast has been showing high interest to bolster its ties with Afghanistan in various areas including trade, countering narcotics, security, education and social and cultures affairs.

The Sino-Afghan relation has been smooth throughout the history. On January 20, 1955 the People's Republic of China established diplomatic relations with the Kingdom of Afghanistan which was upgraded to Comprehensive Cooperative Partnership in 2006. On Friday8 June, the presidents of the two countries agreed in Beijing to take Sino-Afghan relations to the level of strategic and cooperative partnership. Chinese President has pledged 'selfless help' to Afghanistan and will provide $24 million grant to Afghanistan this year. Additionally, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a grouping led by China and Russia, on Thursday, granted Afghanistan observer status at the end of its two-day summit.

China has already secured major oil and copper mining concessions in Afghanistan, which is believed to be sitting on more than $1 trillion worth of minerals.Generations of instability have resulted in little exploration, minor development attempts and an inadequate infrastructure for development and transportation of these Afghanistan's resources. Extraction of unutilized mineral resources of Afghanistan is expected to generate handsome amount of revenue for the government which will, undoubtedly, help this country to reduce its dependency on foreign financial aids.

The Afghan economy has been ravaged by more than three decades of war, and many investors are looking elsewhere as the insurgency spreads to once peaceful areas and claims record number of civilian lives nationwide. Nonetheless, China does not discourage its investors to put their money inside Afghanistan and that is what makes it different from many other countries. Afghanistan would need Chinese investment for sustaining its economy in the long run,when the level of international financial aids would remain as today.

The departure of NATO countries is expected to leave behind a major political, economic and security vacuum and this vacuum needs to be filled through improving bilateral ties with economically strong countries such as China. For Afghanistan, that has been a victim of foreign interference since long, positive contribution from regional countries would turn out to be quite fruitful in the long run. Chinese support to Afghanistan's social, economical and political stability should be seen as something valuable.