The evolution of Pakistan and China’s engagement with Afghanistan since 9/1

Abstract

This study examines how Pakistan’s and China’s interests toward Afghanistan have evolved since 9/11 in pursuit of their security and political and economic objectives. Existing scholarship tends to treat Pakistan–Afghanistan and China–Afghanistan relations separately and rarely trace continuity and change across the whole post-9/11 period. Using qualitative documentary analysis of national policy documents, trilateral diplomatic statements, Chinese primary sources, and Pakistani trade data, and guided by a brief theoretical framework, the study examines three phases: 2001–2013, 2013–2021 and 2021–2025. The analysis finds that security and reconstruction were pursued together from the outset. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) broadened the diplomatic agenda toward connectivity without displacing security. Furthermore, since the 2021 U.S. withdrawal, the language of trilateral cooperation has grown more specific. Overall, the study concludes that security and economic interests have advanced together rather than in sequence in Pakistan’s and China’s Afghanistan policies.