A new freight railway line connecting China and Afghanistan via Tajikistan and Uzbekistan has been announced by the Taliban embassy in Beijing.

The announcement of the inaugurated and already-operational railway comes after China last week said it would offer Afghanistan’s Taliban administration tariff-free access to its construction, energy and consumer sectors.

The Taliban statement on the railway said that the first journey of a freight train from China to the Hairatan land port in the northern Balkh Province of Afghanistan had commenced on the line. The locomotive, it added, was pulling 50 containers and was expected to take towards 20 days to reach its destination.

China has a short 92-kilometre (57-mile) border with Afghanistan at the end of the long, narrow Wakhan Corridor, either side of which are Tajikistan and Pakistan. The border is crossed by several mountain passes, but the rugged, remote territory has no rail infrastructure, hence the need for the freight service to take a route via Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Earlier this year, the Taliban announced a new road through the Wakhan Corridor that leads to the Afghan-Chinese border. There is little evidence to date, however, of it being used for meaningful trade volumes, despite the route being a former thoroughfare of the Ancient Silk Road. Local reports also speak of a lack of required customs infrastructure where the road meets China.

Given the potential for destabilising anti-Beijing Islamist activities in China’s province of Xinjiang, which borders the Wakhan Corridor, and the conflict-torn status of Afghanistan, a base for multiple Islamist terrorist and militant groups, China has been hesitant to expand use of the Chinese-Afghan border crossings.

However, it is interested in building up trade and investment with Afghanistan, promoting the strengthening of the Afghan economy as part of efforts to stabilise the country, in many ways permanently mired in a humanitarian crisis.

One move brought a ground-breaking ceremony for Afghanistan’s giant Mes Aynak copper mine in July after 16 years of delays, with Chinese investment pledged.