FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

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Is China Getting Involved in Reconciling Pakistan-Afghanistan Relations?

Dec. 27, 2018 (EIRNS)—During Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s meeting with visiting Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in Beijing on Dec. 25, where the U.S. decision to pull nearly half its troops from restive Afghanistan was high on the agenda, an op-ed appeared the same day in China’s semi-official Global Times, entitled “How China Can Help Afghanistan, Pakistan Reconcile,” by the former Afghan Ambassador to China Baheen Sultan Ahmad.

The former ambassador wrote:

“Considering the Beijing-Islamabad relationship, we would discuss the role of China in improving Afghan-Pakistan relations on the issue of counter-terrorism, and the reconciliation process within the Afghanistan-China-Pakistan trilateral ministerial dialogue. Mistrust in Kabul-Islamabad relations, which dated back to the establishment of Pakistan, is one of the main factors behind the lack of cooperation in the fight against terrorism and reconciliation in Afghanistan as well.”

China, which has close relations with Pakistan, and is keen to improve its relations with Afghanistan, has never acknowledged that Afghan-Pakistan relations have been in shambles for decades, nor that Pakistan has anything to do with the militant Taliban groups in Afghanistan. In his column, however, Ahmad wrote:

“It’s a common belief in Afghanistan that the Taliban receives support from Pakistani establishments, and the leader of the group lives in cities like Quetta and Peshawar. Considering China a good friend and neighbor and strategic partner, and taking into account the all-weather friendship between China and Pakistan, Afghanistan has been requesting Beijing to bridge relations and help increase trust between Kabul and Islamabad.”