- US Secretary of State Anthony Brinken stated that Afghanistan may become a “untouchable country.”
- The Taliban are making military gains across the country.
- The Taliban leaders assured China that the country will not host groups that plan to target other countries.
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Brinken stated that if the Taliban controlled by force, Afghanistan would become a “untouchable state” because a high-level delegation of the armed group visited China to assure officials of their international obligations.
“An Afghanistan that does not respect the rights of the people, and an Afghanistan that has committed atrocities against its own people will become a pariah country,” Brinken told reporters in India on Wednesday during his first official visit.
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In China, the Taliban’s leadership assured Beijing that the organization would not allow Afghanistan to be used as a base for conspiracy against another country.
A delegation including co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is holding talks in China as the organization continues its full offensive against Afghanistan, including areas on their common border .
Their border is only 76 kilometers long—and in a rugged, high-altitude area with no highway intersections—but Beijing fears that Afghanistan may be used as a gathering place for Uyghur separatists in Xinjiang.
Unfounded concerns
Taliban spokesman Mohamed Naim told AFP that these concerns were unfounded.
“The Islamic Emirate assured China that Afghan land will not be used to endanger the security of any country… They (China) promised not to interfere in Afghan affairs, but to help solve problems and bring peace.”
Beijing confirmed the main thrust of the talks led by Foreign Minister Wang Yi in China.
But in Kabul, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani urged the international community to “review the willingness of the Taliban and its supporters to accept a political solution.”
“In terms of scale, scope and timing, we are facing an unprecedented invasion in the past 30 years,” he warned in a speech on Wednesday.
“These are not the Taliban of the 20th century… but the embodiment of the connection between transnational terrorist networks and transnational criminal organizations.”
In New Delhi, Brinken warned the Taliban that if it wants to gain global recognition, it must make changes.
“The Taliban said it seeks international recognition and it wants Afghanistan to receive international support. Presumably, it wants its leaders to travel freely around the world, lift sanctions, etc.,” he said.
“Taking over the country by force and abusing the rights of its people is not the way to achieve these goals.”
Muslim-majority Xinjiang
Analysts said that China’s foreign policy stance is a matter of non-interference in other countries. Given the Taliban’s proximity to Muslim-majority Xinjiang, it is disturbed by the Taliban’s religious beliefs.
But this meeting provided legitimacy for a group that aspired to international recognition-and the potential diplomatic shield of the United Nations-to accompany their military demonstrations across the country.
“Wang Yi pointed out that the Afghan Taliban is an important military and political force in Afghanistan,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters in Beijing.
“China has always insisted on not interfering in the internal affairs of Afghanistan…Afghanistan belongs to the Afghan people,” he said, in sharp contrast to the “failure of the US policy on Afghanistan.”
Taliban officials have stepped up their international diplomacy, seeking global recognition when they wish to regain power.
Since the US-led foreign troops began their final withdrawal in May, they have made overall progress across Afghanistan.
Communist leaders in Beijing and the Taliban have little in common in ideology, but experts believe that common pragmatism can see that common self-interests outweigh sensitive differences.
For Beijing, Kabul’s stable and cooperative government will pave the way for the expansion of the “Belt and Road” initiative to Afghanistan, while the Taliban see China as an important source of economic support.
Nishank Motwani, an Afghan expert based in Australia, said: “Let the Chinese stand on their side and the Chinese can provide them with diplomatic cover in the Security Council.”
“It is important to note… when other countries opened their doors to engage with the Taliban, it weakened the legitimacy of the Afghan government and presented the Taliban as a near-waiting government.”
At the same time, Moscow stated that after the Taliban recently occupied border crossings with Central Asian countries, the situation in Afghanistan “continuously deteriorating”. Moscow stated that it would support the Tajik army with weapons and equipment.
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