Afghanistan, emerging geopolitical & geostrategic trends
IRONICALLY, Afghanistan has once again become epicentre of regional diplomatic connectivity, brightening the scope of durable peace, stability and harmony. The recent visit of Pakistani Federal Defence Minister along with DG ISI to Kabul has tried to plug in the flaws in national security damaging regional peace and stability. Both parties have agreed to cooperate in combating against terrorism، especially TTP, ISIS and other global terrorist franchises. Capturing of the banned terrorist leader Gulzar Imam alias Shambay from Balochistan is indeed a great achievement of the defence forces and secret agencies of Pakistan. Moreover, surge in forming uniformity in fighting against TTP would be a paradigm shift in the national security and narrative in the days to come.
China, being the magnetic force of peace, prosperity, conflict resolution, stability and harmony, has most recently issued a comprehensive paper on Afghanistan and suggested a holistic and comprehensive roadmap for its socio-economic development. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has released a paper stating China’s position on the Afghan issue. According to this paper, China and Afghanistan are close neighbours with longstanding friendship between the two peoples. It highlights the Chinese principled stance about “Three Respects” and “Three Nevers” about the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Afghanistan. It assures respect the independent choices made by the Afghan people, and respects the religious beliefs and national customs of Afghanistan. Moreover, China never interferes in Afghanistan’s internal affairs, never seeks selfish interests in Afghanistan, and never pursues so-called sphere of influence.
Right from the beginning, China supports moderate and prudent governance in Afghanistan. China facilitates to achieve an open and inclusive political structure in Afghanistan and desires that it should adopt moderate and prudent domestic and foreign policies, and engage in friendly exchanges with all countries especially neighbouring countries. Thus vividly reflects China’s people and peace loving policies for the interim government of Afghanistan. Furthermore, China’s diplomatic persuasions to convince the Afghan Interim-government to protect the basic rights and interests of all Afghan people, including women, children and all ethnic groups, and continue working actively to meet Afghan people’s interests and the international community’s expectations is a commendable act. In the most recently circulated paper China assured to extend its unconditional support for the reconstruction and development through assistance, pledges and promote steady progress in economic, trade and investment cooperation, and actively carry out cooperation in such fields as medical care, poverty alleviation, agriculture and disaster prevention and mitigation.
In this regard, China welcomes Afghanistan’s participation in Belt and Road cooperation and supports Afghanistan’s integration into regional economic cooperation and connectivity that will transform Afghanistan from a “land-locked country” to a “land-linked country” in the days to come. China desires to further enhance its support to counter terrorism against the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM). China hopes that Afghanistan will fulfil its commitment in earnest and take more effective measures to crack down on all terrorist forces including the ETIM with greater determination, and earnestly ensure the safety and security of citizens, institutions and projects of China and other countries in Afghanistan.
For the further strengthening of regional resolve against terrorism China desires to have greater bilateral and multilateral counter-terrorism cooperation. In this regard, Afghanistan should be supported in taking comprehensive measures to address both the symptoms and root causes of terrorism and prevent the country from again becoming a safe haven, breeding ground and source of terrorism. Moreover, there is an urgent need to jointly work to fight terrorism, separatism and extremism in Afghanistan. China calls on the international community to firmly support Afghanistan’s fight against terrorism, separatism and extremism and its active measures to cut off the channels of terrorist financing, to counter recruitment and cross-border movement of terrorists and the spread of violent terrorist audio and video materials, to contain extremism, youth radicalization and the spread of terrorist ideologies, and to eliminate sleeper cells and terrorist safe havens.
Interestingly, the Chinese paper urged to the US government to live up to its commitments and responsibilities to Afghanistan. It urged that all sorts of external interference and infiltration in Afghanistan should be completely discouraged. China shows its diplomatic, political and economic commitments to transform Afghanistan society into a vibrant and democratic society. To conclude the most recently Chinese paper on Afghanistan rightly upholds that Afghanistan should be a platform for cooperation among various parties rather than geopolitical games. It rightly shows China supports for a conducive political settlement of the Afghan issue, and will actively engage in multilateral coordination through such mechanisms and platforms as the Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on the Afghan Issue among the Neighboring Countries of Afghanistan, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)-Afghanistan Contact Group, the Moscow Format Consultations on Afghanistan, the China-Afghanistan-Pakistan Trilateral Foreign Ministers’ Dialogue, the Informal Meeting of China-Russia-Pakistan-Iran Foreign Ministers on Afghanistan, the Troika Plus Meeting and the United Nations, in an effort to build consensus and synergy for stability in and assistance to Afghanistan at regional and international levels.
Despite global propaganda China continues to support Afghanistan’s humanitarian and refugee issues. China calls on the international community to provide continuous humanitarian and development assistance to jointly help Afghanistan rebuild its economy and create favorable conditions for the final settlement of the refugee issue. Terrorism is a menace which should be dealt with iron hands. Even human and drugs trafficking should also be curbed through anti-terrorism mechanism. It seems that Afghanistan is in a crucial period of moving from turbulence to stabilization. It suggests that the Chinese basic policy of “Three Respects” and “Three Nevers”, will further support moderate and prudent governance in Afghanistan. It will further enhance prospects of peace and reconstruction in Afghanistan. It will also support Afghanistan in countering terrorism resolutely and forcefully. It rightly calls for greater bilateral and multilateral counter-terrorism cooperation, urging the US to live up to its commitments and responsibilities to Afghanistan, strengthening multilateral coordination on issues concerning Afghanistan, facilitating solution to Afghanistan’s humanitarian and refugee issues, and supporting Afghanistan’s fight against narcotics.
Interestingly, the fourth Meeting of Foreign Ministers among the Neighboring Countries of Afghanistan will be held in Samarkand. It shows that China stands ready extend its coordination and cooperation with Afghanistan’s neighbors and the rest of the world to help Afghanistan embark on a path of stability and development at an early date and jointly realize lasting security, prosperity and progress in the region. It seems that role of China to bring peace, stability and harmony in Afghanistan would be permanent and paramount in the days to come. Pakistan, Uzbekistan and even Iran would play a supporting role in materializing dreams of greater regional connectivity, immense socio-economic prosperity and security by managing the conflicting realities happening on the soil of Afghanistan. Regional consensual definitely supports regional peace and massive construction in Afghanistan but the leaders of interim government of Taliban must realize that their blind and beast tactics against minorities, women and children will achieve nothing but world-wide condemnation and rejection. Thus there is an urgent need to establish a joint regional anti-terrorism mechanism to fight against all these anti-human tendencies.
