Under the Afghan Taliban, China's economic diplomacy has been making rapid progress in Afghanistan. On July 5, 2023, Beijing opened a new land route for trade with Afghanistan, signaling a deepening of economic ties with the Taliban-ruled country. A train loaded with commercial goods worth $1.5 million departed from Lanzhou, the capital of China's northwest province of Gansu,
Tensions between Iran and the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan have, in recent weeks, risen sharply over the sharing of water from Helmand River, a 1,150-kilometer water system emerging in Maidan Wardak province of Afghanistan and traversing a short distance in Iran before feeding into the Lake Hamoun marshes on the Iran-Afghan border.