China plays mediator’s role to mend strained PakAfghan ties

CALLING FOR RECONCILIATION Beijing hosts first meeting with Kabul and Islamabad, encourages them to repair strained relations

China on Tuesday hosted the foreign ministers of Afghanistan and Pakistan, seeking to mediate between Kabul and Islamabad to improve their ties and to begin peace talks with the Taliban.

The first ever such trilateral meeting reflected China’s efforts to expand its political and diplomatic role in the region, a move likely to lead to concerns in India.

A joint statement issued after Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s meeting with his Pakistani and Afghan counterparts Khawaja Asif and Salahuddin Rabbani called for a “broad-based and inclusive peace and reconciliation process”.

In the wake of near-daily Taliban attacks across Afghanistan, they called on the militants “to join the peace process at an early date.”

Afghanistan and Pakistan are at odds over American and Afghan accusations that Islamabad is harbouring some of the fiercest factions of the Taliban, which was overthrown as the Afghan government in 2001 by a US invasion. Those include the Haqqani group, declared a terrorist organisation by the US.

“Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to improve their relations as soon as possible,” said the Chinese foreign minister. “The two sides unanimously expressed the point that they will not allow any party or force to use their territories to engage in the activities that would undermine the security of the other side,” Wang Yi said.

Chinese leaders also are uneasy about the potential for militant activity in Afghanistan and elsewhere in Central Asia to spill across the border into China’s Muslim northwest.

The Taliban have stepped up attacks since the US and its Nato allies concluded their combat mission at the end of 2014.

Taliban leaders have refused to talk to the Afghan government but have travelled many times to China, held talks with Russia and Iran, and attended conferences in Japan and Europe.

At the Beijing meeting, Asif expressed hope for progress on proposals to improve trade and cooperation in securing their border areas. “Pakistan emphasised the importance of border management, the return of Afghan refugees and intelligence sharing for effective counterterrorism cooperation,” he said.

Pakistan hosted talks between Kabul and the Taliban in July 2015. Since then, diplomats from Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the US have tried without success to organise another meet. Other governments have pressed Pakistan to encourage the Taliban to rejoin talks, but Islamabad says it has less influence over the group than others believe.

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